Post modernism posits that there is no truth, nothing reliable, traditional science and traditions in general are just “constructs” promoted to the advantage of the oppressor class.
Post modernist thinkers view the world through a Marxist/Hegelian prism–and it makes them evil sorcerers.
However,the post modernists long ago took over much of academia and imposed this nonsense.
Here is a fine essay by a fine man, Classicist, essayist, military historian of great repute and scholarship, Victor Davis Hanson.
See if he helps you understand why we deal with so many things that aren’t so.
I teach ethics to physicians, and I try to include a little about how post modernism poisons the intellectual environment, but most physicians, including even academic physicians are not aware of what post modernism has done to scientific and academic inquiry.
Few except the political science and philosophy people know about post modernist theory (crit theory is another name) and how it has spawned a culture of politically motivated junk science, not just in the social sciences, but when considered important, in the usually more scientifically sound, harder sciences. Politics, ideology should not drive intellectual inquiry, but they do.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/369820/poison-postmodern-lying-victor-davis-hanson
From the article:
“Post modernism posits that there is no truth . . . ”
One other source claims that in Postmodernism, scientific ‘truth’ is a consensus of experts in any given field. So which is it?
And yes, this is a stooopid question. However I’ve tried to wade through some of the Postmodern BS, and it was too painful to continue. I’ll have to make do with comments from readers who have more intestinal fortitude than I can muster.
Schopenhauer once assessed Hegel’s work with a comment (apologies for not getting it exactly right). “In Kant we were forced to recognize that what is obscure in not necessarily without merit. But, in Hegel we have reached new heights of stringing together senseless phrases such as has previously seen in mad houses and will remain forever a monument to German stupidity.”
I use the Sokal affair to illustrate how unreliable scientific media in general can be. The real flaw that hoax illustrates is common confirmation bias. Unfortunately, the tendency not to question things you want to believe is in no way unique to postmodernism.
I use the Sokal Hoax to show people what Post Modernist BS is all about.
It is a little bit esoteric to figure out how Sokal used all the buzz words and such to fool those idiots, but he sure had em dead to rights.
Maybe I should do a post on the Sokal Hoax–its one of the great events in intellectual history.
The article, “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity” by Alan D. Sokal is also a sharp criticism of Post modernism. If you know physics, and carefully parse the doublespeak, it’s also very funny.
You be right mr. GH, got distracted by a phone call and didn’t get it all up.
So now it is complete to include the link to the great essay by the great man, Hanson. I have about 10 of his books on my shelves because he writes well about military history. His essays tend to be about politics and social cultural stuff.
There is no link to the essay. Is it this one?
http://victorhanson.com/wordpress/?p=6957