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In particular charges of obscurantism, intellectually-vain tail-chasing, being 'epistemologically challenged', his metaphors of 'genetic drift' and 'peacock fea
by michael_dorfman 16y ago
In particular charges of obscurantism, intellectually-vain tail-chasing, being 'epistemologically challenged', his metaphors of 'genetic drift' and 'peacock feathers' where academic communities evolve to fill the vacuum with linguistic puffery, jargon and self-referential bullshit in the absence of any clearly-stated objective or externally-imposed goals and success criteria.
This may be how it looks to an outsider like Chomsky, but it's not an accurate description of the academic communities that he is not a party to.
"Jargon" is what an outsider calls another discipline's terms of art. "Generative grammar" is jargon to a ballet dancer. "Battement tendu" is jargon to a linguist.
I'm sorry if Chomsky expects philosophy to have a "clearly-stated objective" or "externally imposed goals and success criteria" beyond what they've had for the past couple millenia, but there you have it.
- mjw 16y agoRe jargons: I don't think all jargons are created equal. I'd say that it's possible, and worthwhile, to investigate and make some attempt at classifying jargons with respect to properties like: * To what extent do layers of jargon correspond to layers of depth of ideas in the field which they describe * How precisely-defined are they, and how well-founded are the definitions * Are there clear externally-verifiable criteria which can be used to distinguish valid use from misuse or dishonest, empty, bullshitty use of the jargon.