Knowledge: Metis Summary and Analysis

¶ … Knowledge: Metis

Summary and analysis is of Scott's "Thin simplifications and practical knowledge: Metis"

Summary and analysis is of Scott's "Thin simplifications and practical knowledge: Metis"

According to Chapter 9 of James C. Scott's book Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed, the failure of state-imposed and orchestrated 'improvement' strategies is due to the fundamental utopian simplification of the needs of human beings within the social order. Scott criticizes a wide variety of quasi-utopian schemes, like Stalin's forced collectivism, Mao's Great Leap Forward, and communism in general. These programs imposed a top-down ideological order upon human beings and failed to consider local, human subtleties in their design. Scott called this a kind of 'work to rule' method of governing: forcing workers to follow pre-set rules exactly resulted in a kind of work stoppage, like an unintentional trade union work strike.

When human being's complexities are not tolerated by the state, people will devise illegal methods of thwarting the rules. This is one reason why society under Stalin was so heavily policed and Soviet society afterward was so corrupt. Utopianism forces the state either to 'look the other way' as humans struggle to create rules by which they can survive or else the state must engage in a totalitarian level of monitoring human behavior, neither of which is acceptable as a long-term governing strategy. For Scott, singular rules are no more effective than a singular weather report for every part of the nation. Learning from individuals in the field of practice in politics and business is essential.

For example, if a businessperson wished to improve sales, rather than imposing a new management philosophy upon the organization, Scott would suggest talking to salespeople and creating strategies to deal with different market segments, based upon the worker's advice. When creating welfare reform, talking to social workers who deal with the poor and can honestly report upon what needs are required and where fraud does occur is better than creating a general ideology such as 'work is good' or 'welfare is good,' which fails to take into consideration the subtleties of individual human needs.

The villains of Scott's essay are radical, 'high modernist' thinkers who try to make society confirm to their vision and will, rather than the reverse. A skilled boxer, farmer, sailor, or wrestler cannot learn his or her craft without constant practice and acute attunement to what is going on in the real world, but utopians believe that philosophy and thought in an ivory tower or a government office can create a better society. Responding to human needs without engaging with actual humans is just as absurd as trying to learn to ride a bike by reading about riding a vehicle. Scott suggests that the perceptions of individuals are as delicate as sensing slight differences in weight: at first the slight differences are imperceptible, but then clear to the person holding the object. However, this phenomenon cannot be predicted or described beforehand.

The ineffability of craft -- knowing when to add a pinch of this or a pinch of that to a stew -- is what is missing in rigid utopian programs. Another comparison might be studying a language academically without really having to speak it, versus the benefits of total immersion. Scott asks: What would you rather have as a guide: a sailor who knew the sea, or a map and clearly prefers the former.

Scott does not totally deny the benefits of what he calls 'techne' or skilled knowledge, versus 'Metis' or knowledge learned through practice. Techne attempts to "bracket uncertainty" by providing generalized knowledge, such as scientific theories (Scott 321). While Techne is needed when everything is being marshaled to pursue a singular goal, thus reducing extraneous variables and outside influences, a state cannot create such a controlled environment and thus cannot be governed by Techne. Yet the Soviet Union attempted to instate such a principle through "formulas of efficiency, production function, and rational actions" (Scott 323).