Arrested Development and Philosophy_ They've Made a Huge Mistake - Kristopher G. Phillips [75]
The theory one chooses is thus very important. If one accepts the theory, for instance, that George Sr. helped hide weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and thus sees bunkers in the photograph, then war follows. This is a significant result of the theory-ladenness of observation for policy procedures. For an unprepared soldier like Buster Bluth, it could have disastrous consequences.
Wayne Jarvis’s desire to do his job and convict George Sr. colors Jarvis’s interpretation of what he’s looking at. Zuckerkorn’s interpretation, too, reflects his own deep interests. Fortunately, the narrator knows all. He solves the debate by coming in as the “voice of God” and clearing things up, telling us, “Tobias had inadvertently photographed himself while learning to use his camera phone” (cut to scene of Tobias in the bathtub with Gob’s phone). The viewer, then, has enough information to decide between two competing theories.
As much as we like Ron Howard telling us what’s what on Arrested Development, we don’t have the benefit of an omniscient narrator in everyday life. How do we choose? How can we choose a theory? How do we know whether we’re looking at bunkers or balls?
The Lenses of Wayne Jarvis, Barry Zuckerkorn, and George Michael Bluth
In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, American philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996), a follower of the Duhem-Quine thesis, suggests that we all see things through the lens of the dominant theory (or paradigm) in society. We live our day-to-day lives as if the dominant theory did fully determine the facts of the matter. Our observations, then, are theory-laden. Scientific revolutions occur when our paradigms fall into crisis—when we want to answer questions our paradigms make it difficult to even pose.
The theory that George Sr. is a criminal and conspired with Saddam Hussein is dominant at the time that the photographs are discovered. Bluth is a known criminal, has escaped prisons in two different countries, and has been seen with Hussein by the time the “bunker” photographs are found. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination for Wayne Jarvis to accuse George Sr. of the “medium to heavy treason” that the photographs apparently prove. It’s also not too difficult to understand how the key seats of knowledge, such as the government and media, can accept Jarvis’s suggestion. When there is no agreement on what the dominant theory about a given topic should be, however, the foundation of the dominant theory erodes. Barry Zuckerkorn’s new theory on what the photographs could be showing created a crisis, which (in this case quickly) necessitated the selection of a new dominant theory. It also raised new questions that couldn’t be asked before, like, “Whose balls are these anyway?” and, “Why would someone take a picture of his balls?”
Not all crises, however, are so easily resolved. George Michael’s inability to pass the eye exam in “Sad Sack” makes this clear. While George Michael is not explicitly testing out new theories, he is literally testing out new lenses through which to see the world. He’s unable to find one that allows him to see things clearly. Thus, when Maeby asks George Michael if he has seen her mother, George Michael is only able to commit to a “seems possible.” In the absence of the right lens through which to see the world, or an objective criterion for picking the right lenses, George Michael is stuck in a skeptical moment: he knows not what he sees. It’s only when he abandons his glasses that he’s able to say he’s seen the now infamous image on the cover of the magazine before. He’s seen Tobias’s testicles as Tobias clumsily climbed to the top bunk of the bed they share. But George Michael still can’t take on the role of a privileged observer, helping