[extropy-chat] Fw: Deconstruction deconstructed....

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Harvey Newstrom" <mail at harveynewstrom.com>
> To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 2:19 AM
> Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] Fw: Deconstruction deconstructed....
> 
> 
> > Jef Allbright wrote,
> > > Stephen Karlsgodt wrote:
> > > > <http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/decon.html >
> >
> > I would fire any engineer that wrote this article.  He makes fun of
> > things he doesn't understand and assumes that only his own field of
> > endeavor is worthwhile while other people's knowledge is fake. 
> > He sounds more like the pointy-haired boss in Dilbert rather than
> > a real engineer.
> ...
> > This was really pathetic.
> 
> And the classic 'Quantum Hermeneutics' paper?
>
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html

Just so. Sokal made a much better attempt at deconstructing
deconstructionism by his exposure of the utter hypocrisy of the editors
of the journal that published his paper. By their own postmodern rules,
that Sokal did not believe what he wrote should have had no bearing on
its legitimacy as literary criticism. Yet when they found out he didn't
mean it, that it was intended as a hoax, they got all pissed off, thus
proving that they still respect the objective truth of the
techno-intelligentsia.

Hoaxing a system that depends on trusting all players may not be
entirely kosher, but the fact that such a paper could make it through
peer review and be published demonstrates that what Sokal sought to
prove, (and what Karlsgodt sought as well) that the humanities are not
about expanding human knowledge, but in proving how smart and clever
you are.

What amazes me is that more mensan ENTJ types don't see this as a
challenge more often. Does the incomprehensibility of postmodern
humanities to the average geek prove that the geek isn't as smart as
s/he thinks s/he is?

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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