Postmodernism is a Myth.
Now if that doesn't get people going, nothing will.
Briefly, the story from the Times discusses people who are looking for spiritual answers from quantum physics. Since it is not well understood outside of a select few experts (frickin' geniuses, if you ask me), people read a lot of meaning into what Einstein characterized as "Spooky actions at a distance." Look, they say, the search for meaning, the search for God, is found in laboratories! The search for the Ultimate Truth is scientific!
Uh, no. It isn't.
What it is, and I'm using admittedly strange terminology here, is scientistic. It is spirituality, the supernatural, the superstitious attempting to appear scientific.
Which leads me to my point.
In a broad sense, postmodernism posits that all knowledge is subjective, and therefore, all 'forms of knowing' are therefore valid. There is no overarching, hegemenous truth.
Of course, developing a grand theory that says there IS no grand theory is fraught with its own contradictions, but I digress...
In many of the cases I have studied, particularly those concerned with alternative medicine, the attempt is often made to represent the activity of 'proving' or 'researching' the phenomenon in question rationally. The results are published in journals. Different viewpoints are reviewed and debated.
Does any of this sound familiar?
A way of knowing cannot and will not be unique if it requires validation through the process of imitating the dominant 'type' of knowledge. The necessity of appearing scientistic expresses the overarching perceived value of the scientific method.
Ergo, these forms of knowledge use the language that is necessary to convince, and completely invalidates its claim to uniqueness on its own terms. It is a variation on existing knowledge and methods.
Unless you use your own language, and I mean your own language, that only you speak, and use a method of inquiry or explanation that lies completely outside the realm of established rational thought, your idea is not unique.
Ideas of any sort are always created from within the context of, and/or in reaction to, the dominant culture. There is no way to avoid it - we are all 'embedded', unable to step back far enough to recognize all of the influences that affect our behaviour and thought. If we're lucky, we can detect a few during our lifetime. So, unless you are alone on another planet, and have been completely alone since birth, the wackiest ideas still have some relationship or explanatory value to the culture you are mired in.
It's all relative - new ideas are not 'postmodern', they just have variable worth to society as a whole. The less valuable, the more marginalized the idea will be.
The more valuable, the more it will be ingrained into the fabric of the wider culture.
Like Physics.
Briefly, the story from the Times discusses people who are looking for spiritual answers from quantum physics. Since it is not well understood outside of a select few experts (frickin' geniuses, if you ask me), people read a lot of meaning into what Einstein characterized as "Spooky actions at a distance." Look, they say, the search for meaning, the search for God, is found in laboratories! The search for the Ultimate Truth is scientific!
Uh, no. It isn't.
What it is, and I'm using admittedly strange terminology here, is scientistic. It is spirituality, the supernatural, the superstitious attempting to appear scientific.
Which leads me to my point.
In a broad sense, postmodernism posits that all knowledge is subjective, and therefore, all 'forms of knowing' are therefore valid. There is no overarching, hegemenous truth.
Of course, developing a grand theory that says there IS no grand theory is fraught with its own contradictions, but I digress...
In many of the cases I have studied, particularly those concerned with alternative medicine, the attempt is often made to represent the activity of 'proving' or 'researching' the phenomenon in question rationally. The results are published in journals. Different viewpoints are reviewed and debated.
Does any of this sound familiar?
A way of knowing cannot and will not be unique if it requires validation through the process of imitating the dominant 'type' of knowledge. The necessity of appearing scientistic expresses the overarching perceived value of the scientific method.
Ergo, these forms of knowledge use the language that is necessary to convince, and completely invalidates its claim to uniqueness on its own terms. It is a variation on existing knowledge and methods.
Unless you use your own language, and I mean your own language, that only you speak, and use a method of inquiry or explanation that lies completely outside the realm of established rational thought, your idea is not unique.
Ideas of any sort are always created from within the context of, and/or in reaction to, the dominant culture. There is no way to avoid it - we are all 'embedded', unable to step back far enough to recognize all of the influences that affect our behaviour and thought. If we're lucky, we can detect a few during our lifetime. So, unless you are alone on another planet, and have been completely alone since birth, the wackiest ideas still have some relationship or explanatory value to the culture you are mired in.
It's all relative - new ideas are not 'postmodern', they just have variable worth to society as a whole. The less valuable, the more marginalized the idea will be.
The more valuable, the more it will be ingrained into the fabric of the wider culture.
Like Physics.
you mean they actually came up with a sequel to 'What the *^%$ do we know?" Oy vey, time to limber up the Skeptical Inquirer for another special edition. The fact that that garbage film actually made enough money to justify a sequel is truly depressing - the hard science majors that I know can be sent into fits of frothing rage just by mentioning that film. Even more depressing is the fact that the New York Times are actually taking it seriously, one would think after the Jayson Blair and Judy Miller fiasco's that they might have actually learnt to check these stories...
Posted by
Dan |
Tue Mar 14, 02:23:00 PM