On the Concept of a “Universe of Discourse”

Some people are confused at the concept of a Universe of Discourse. It’s basically a descriptor for the idea that our unconscious biases can affect what we are able to see, even when it is staring us in the face.

So, just as the winner of the “World” Series is always from North America and the winner of Miss “Universe” is always from planet Earth, so Doctor Who, when regenerating, can be white, black, male, female, young, old, gay, straight, or trans–but he will never, ever, ever, ever, not be a citizen of the UK. The universe of Whovian discourse imagines it is the most cosmically universalist one there is. But against that limit–plain as a pikestaff to non-Brits–there is no transgression, precisely because nobody making the show seems aware that the limit exists at all.

Historical examples of how universes of discourse can both blind us to what we see and, when they suddenly shiift, have the power of something like a revelatory experience.; So, for instance, in his magnificently fun and readable series chronicling the death of geocentrism, the rise of the heliocentric model, and the checkered career of Galileo (which you really need to read and which beginneth here), Michael Flynn notes this particularly funny example of how Universes of Discourse can keep us from seeing what is right in front of our noses and how such shifts in perspective can be both liberating and yet halting and tentative; He notes that Kepler “wondered if the reason why Mars seemed to speed up or slow down was that – wait for it – it was speeding up and slowing down, and not moving uniformly around a circular epicycle riding along a circular (but off-center) deferent.”

Not until the Universe of Discourse shifted to allow for the possibility that what Kepler was seeing was what he was seeing was he able to see it clearly.

Sometimes Universes of Discourse shift thanks to the influence of humor and satire. So for instance, Lenny Bruce shocked white audiences who had been raised on westerns with the exchange between the Lone Ranger and Tonto when, attacked by “Injuns” the extremely white Lone Ranger says “I think we’re surrounded by Injuns” and Tonto replies, “What you mean ‘we’. white man?” A whole generation to whom it had never occurred, were suddenly confronted with the unsettling possibility that colonized and oppressed Others might have their own lives and perspectives and that they may not mesh very well with their unthinkingly accepted Universe of Discourse.

Understanding the idea of a Universe of Discourse is vital, not only for addressing our blind spots in the present (who are we unconsciously excluding from the conversation?), but for understanding history. Postmoderns, who suffer from nearly terminal chronological snobbery, are often utterly oblivious to their own blind spots while summarily dismissing past cultures and civilizations for seeing and prizing things we don’t care about while being blind to things we think obvious.

Of which more tomorrow.