4 ms·

This book (which I haven't read, so cannot comment as to its arguments' validity) claims to list a large number of examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashi

This book (which I haven't read, so cannot comment as to its arguments' validity) claims to list a large number of examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashionable_Nonsense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashionable_Nonsense

danharaj 9y ago
Reviews by professional philosophers of Sokal's book criticize it harshly as worse-than-skimming of the texts the book claims to treat. Sokal's claim to fame in the anti-postmodernism conversation is the Sokal affair which was deliberately overblown: Sokal created a nonsensical paper pretending to draw philosophical conclusions from quantum gravity and shopped it around. He managed to find a journal that would publish it: One that wasn't peer reviewed at the time the Sokal affair happened. Even worse, the journal asked him to clarify his writing, which he refused to do, further weakening the implications of his stunt. The Bogdanov affair [1] should be noted as a scandal in physics, one similar to the Sokal affair, though it wasn't a deliberate attempt to discredit the academic rigor of the physics community. There are extremely good criticisms of postmodern scholarship. For example, criticizing the impenetrability of pomo jargon which is optimized for communication between experts is perfectly legitimate. It's also true that at times when authors are being sloppy it is misconstrued as an attempt to be provocative. On the other hand, authors like Deleuze were trying to be provocative. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair
- mccoyspace 9y ago
  agreed. There are many examples of attempts to put into dialog these different traditions of postmodernism vs humanism/analytic rationality: The Foucault/Chompsky debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfNl2L0Gf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfNl2L0Gf8 The Heidegger/Cassirer debate: https://newrepublic.com/article/81380/heidegger-cassirer-davos-kant https://newrepublic.com/article/81380/heidegger-cassirer-dav...

danharaj 9y ago

Reviews by professional philosophers of Sokal's book criticize it harshly as worse-than-skimming of the texts the book claims to treat. Sokal's claim to fame in the anti-postmodernism conversation is the Sokal affair which was deliberately overblown: Sokal created a nonsensical paper pretending to draw philosophical conclusions from quantum gravity and shopped it around. He managed to find a journal that would publish it: One that wasn't peer reviewed at the time the Sokal affair happened. Even worse, the journal asked him to clarify his writing, which he refused to do, further weakening the implications of his stunt. The Bogdanov affair [1] should be noted as a scandal in physics, one similar to the Sokal affair, though it wasn't a deliberate attempt to discredit the academic rigor of the physics community. There are extremely good criticisms of postmodern scholarship. For example, criticizing the impenetrability of pomo jargon which is optimized for communication between experts is perfectly legitimate. It's also true that at times when authors are being sloppy it is misconstrued as an attempt to be provocative. On the other hand, authors like Deleuze were trying to be provocative. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair

mccoyspace 9y ago
agreed. There are many examples of attempts to put into dialog these different traditions of postmodernism vs humanism/analytic rationality: The Foucault/Chompsky debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfNl2L0Gf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfNl2L0Gf8 The Heidegger/Cassirer debate: https://newrepublic.com/article/81380/heidegger-cassirer-davos-kant https://newrepublic.com/article/81380/heidegger-cassirer-dav...