Sentences can save us. Who could ask for anything more? Stanley Fish More Quotes by Stanley Fish More Quotes From Stanley Fish This is what language does: organize the world into manageable, and in some sense artificial, units that can then be inhabited and manipulated. Stanley Fish language doe world Freedom of speech is not an academic value. Accuracy of speech is an academic value; completeness of speech is an academic value; relevance of speech is an academic value. Each of these is directly related to the goal of academic inquiry: getting a matter of fact right. Stanley Fish freedom-of-speech academic goal It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are. Stanley Fish matter helping thinking Belief and knowledge are considered to be two different things. But they are not. Stanley Fish different belief two The first thing to ask when writing a sentence is 'What am I trying to do?' Stanley Fish writing trying firsts What we know of the world comes to us through words, or, to look at it from the other direction, when we write a sentence, we create a world, which is not the world, but the world as is appears within a dimension of assessment. Stanley Fish assessment writing looks Any idea can be brought into the classroom if the point is to inquire into its structure, history, influence and so forth. But no idea belongs in the classroom if the point of introducing it is to recruit your students for the political agenda it may be thought to imply. Stanley Fish agendas political ideas The idea - the core idea of humanism - is that the act of reading about great deeds will lead you to imitate them. Stanley Fish deeds reading ideas In general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offers a stance that is defensive, cowardly and likely to be ineffective. Stanley Fish higher-education speak doe It is always incorrect to assume you can know what someone's moral convictions are based on their philosophical theories. Stanley Fish philosophical moral assuming Despite the apparent absoluteness of the First Amendment, there are any number of ways of getting around it, ways that are known to any student of law. In general, the strategy is to manipulate the distinction between speech and action which is at bottom a distinction between inconsequential and consequential behavior. Stanley Fish speech law numbers Know what makes a sentence more than a random list, practice constructing sentences and explaining what you have done, and you will know how to make sentences forever and you will know too when what you are writing doesn't make the grade because it has degenerated into a mere pile of discrete items. Stanley Fish practice forever writing People write or speak sentences in order to produce an effect, and the success of a sentence is measured by the degree to which the desired effect has been achieved. Stanley Fish writing order people Sentence writers are not copyists; they are selectors. Stanley Fish sentences It may sound paradoxical, but verbal fluency is the product of many hours spent writing about nothing, just as musical fluency is the product of hours spent repeating scales. Stanley Fish musical sound writing We in universities are not in the democracy business. What we do, when we're doing it, is teach and learn. Stanley Fish university teach democracy Opinion-sharing sessions are like junk food: they fill you up with starch and leave you feeling both sated and hungry. A sustained inquiry into the truth of a matter is an almost athletic experience; it may exhaust you, but it also improves you. Stanley Fish junk athletic feelings I should have known better. Pro-life arguments are now based on scientific evidence and the pro-choice arguments are not. That is a cultural, historical fact. Stanley Fish pro-life choices should-have A pro-choice advocate sees abortion as a decision to be made in accordance with the best scientific opinion as to when the beginning of life, as we know it, occurs. Stanley Fish abortion choices decision The category of first sentence makes sense only if it is looking forward to the development of thematic concerns it perhaps only dimly foreshadows. Stanley Fish looking-forward development firsts
