Carl Remick wrote:
>> Attacking people you haven't read and/or barely understand isn't my
>> idea of what intellectuals are supposed to do ...
>
> Unless, that is, what is not understood is not understandable.
>
by which token sokal is as much a fool as those he ridicules, for
i am sure i will find his papers in theoretical physics forever
incomprehensible, whatever preparation i might undergo. chomsky,
in these matters, sincerely suggests that "in the hard sciences"
he can ultimately learn how to understand a theory - there are
people who can teach him how to do that (presumably starting from
some simple rational axioms that chomsky comprehends). chomsky of
course is being too kind in assuming the same is true for all
humans. even if every human being, in theory, can understand and
accept the results of quantum physics, in reality the complexity
of the process, the years of preparation needed for it, makes it
possible only for a select few. until sokal and chomsky are
willing to subject themselves to that sort of training (that the
layperson would need to understand theoretical physics or
linguistics) their comments, based on this particular line of
reasoning, are premature (at best). of course sokal will respond
that he understands and refutes the theories of the postmodernists.
i understand neither, and as a lay person all i see is a turf war,
with the confusions of the postmodernists matched by the
childishness of sokal, and note the anti-democratic nature of
sokal and levitt's defense of their particular brand of activity
from outside criticism (i started my life on pen-l with a response
to a post on these matters, pointing out levitt's opinion that
democracy had outlived its use and your regular joe is not equipped
to participate in making decisions, that activity now being best
performed by utilizing the results of complex science. michael
pugliese responded to my post with a set of links, one of which
was a page that reported levitt to have said that he was being
facetious, or something of that sort).
--ravi
