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Journeying Towards America: An Anthropological Inquiry Into What We Think Is Real, Jonathan Freiman

Honors Papers

You have in your hands a thing: a discrete, bounded entity. You see paper, which you identify as a thing, and you see some concept, 'thesis', less directly than paper, but still as a thing.

But as much as you have a thing, you engage in a process, the interaction of my mind and yours, a time-delayed conversation. A thesis (or article or book) performs the role of an intellectual launching pad, a catalyst for thought. Both 'realities', the slices of a dead tree and the process-engagement, confront you through experience.

And yet, as Americans we are more likely to …