ON HALF-BAKED THOUGHTS

The Necessity of Provisional Thinking

facilitated by Dr. Dena Fehrenbacher

The usual default goal of our academic work is a completed project: a gradeable paper, a publishable article, a conclusive argument. But academic work – and the intellectual life more broadly – requires more maintenance, cultivation and wandering than that which can be readily turned into a legible product. 

The seminar will focus on so-called “half-baked thoughts” – provisional, nascent thinking, the trying on of ideas, or the thinking of thoughts that one may not be committed to. Loosely-held, incomplete thoughts do not have an immediate value in an economy of content production, but nonetheless have a necessary role in an intellectual life – no matter how derivative, repetitive, unfinished or private they may be. 

We will consider the theory and practice of provisional thinking from Roland Barthes and Blaise Pascal (we may also bring in examples from Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil and Walter Benjamin). Then, this seminar will turn to discuss the habits and practice of this undervalued kind of thinking. How can we deliberately engage and embrace thinking that may have nothing immediately to “show” for it? How can we nurture and enjoy an intellectual life that is not wholly tethered to the production of academic content?

This is a two-session seminar open to students, recent graduates (within 3 years of graduating) and faculty. RSVP is required.

Date: Mondays, March 31 and April 7, 2025

Time: 6:00-7:15PM

Location: Berkeley Institute (2134 Allston Way, 2nd floor)