Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Postmodernism: Postmodernism is a philosophical and cultural movement that emerged in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a skepticism towards traditional notions of truth, reality, and objectivity. Postmodernists argue that these notions are not universal or absolute, but rather are socially constructed and vary from culture to culture. See also Modernism, Culture, Society, Relativism, Cultural relativism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Alan Sokal on Postmodernism - Dictionary of Arguments
I 30 Postmodernism/Sokal/Bricmont: we criticize the use of scientific terms by authors who have not understood the scientific meaning of these terms themselves. VsSokal/VsBricmont: We have been accused that the authors critizised by us as "postmodern", (Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Félix Guattari, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Lacan, Bruno Latour, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel Serres and Paul Virilio) are not postmodern at all. >G. Deleuze, >J. Derrida, >F. Guattari, >J. Lacan, >B. Latour, J.-F. Lyotard, >M. Serres, >P. Virilio. I 31 SokalVsVs/BricmontVsVs: the idea that there is a certain "postmodern" school is less widespread in France than in the English-speaking world. It is really about the underlying irrationalism. VsSokal/VsBricmont: people have asked why we do not criticise other authors such as Penrose, Haewking, Hume, La Mettrie, D' Holbach, Helvetius, Condillac, Comte, Durkheim, Pareto, Engels and many others. >R. Penrose, >D. Hume, >E. Condillac, >A. Comte, >E. Durkheim, >W. Pareto, >F. Engels. I 32 SokalVsVs/BricmontVsVs: All of these authors have mistakes in their works, but we were not interested in proving individual mistakes, but in criticizing the attitude of bringing famous sources into play. >Concepts/Sokal, >Analogies/Sokal._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Sokal I Alan Sokal Jean Bricmont Fashionabel Nonsense. Postmodern Intellectuals Abuse of Science, New York 1998 German Edition: Eleganter Unsinn. Wie die Denker der Postmoderne die Wissenschaften missbrauchen München 1999 Sokal II Alan Sokal Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science New York 1999 |
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> Counter arguments against Sokal
> Counter arguments in relation to Postmodernism
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-19