"Post-modernism"

[Propertarian]

Can anbody convince me to read this stuff? What and why should I read?

[luckyme]

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Can anbody convince me to read this stuff? What and why should I read?

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Read about the Sokal Affair ( Wiki covers it), that's a good grounding in post-modernism.

[Propertarian]

That leads me to not want to read it. Does anybody have anything good to say about it?

[madnak]

Don't do it! It's a trap!!!

[Phil153]

Postmodernism is basically the idea that everything is a social construct, and that no perspective is inherently favored over another.

It's a knee jerk reaction to the dogma of the 18-20th century, the arrogance of white colonists and the events of World War II. Kind of an intellectual equivalent of a teenager becoming an anarchist just to piss of his parents. I consider it a cancer of the mind that promotes solipsism and erodes the boundaries of truth and objectivity.

As to why you should read it, it's a good case study of the fallacies that can arise in human thought and the dangers of overthinking. If you approach it from the perspective of spotting its flaws, it'll probably make you a clearer thinker.

This wikipedia article is a pretty start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism

[Propertarian]

Thanks for the thoughts; I know what it is and what I think of it (not very highly)-I just want to see if anybody can make a good case for it

[hmkpoker]

Postmodernism will rot your brain.

I have friends that refuse to do their laundry, because laundry is a social construct. I'm not kidding.

[yukoncpa]

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Read about the Sokal Affair ( Wiki covers it), that's a good grounding in post-modernism.



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Great article. I don't recall Bill O'reilly, et al, bloviating on this particular Duke University scandal.

[bobman0330]

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Postmodernism will rot your brain.

I have friends that refuse to do their laundry, because laundry is a social construct. I'm not kidding.

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Really? That's awesome.

[luckyme]

As a few have commented, it's worth a bit of study simply because it has a big influence on our society, just as we'd study McCarthyism or even Catholicism.

When I first ran across it I thought it'd be a good reminder to take claimed truths with a grain of salt. Turned out to be based on subsisting on salt alone, by the barrelful, and you can watch people brains shrivel up like a tablespoon of salt on a slug.

It's a nice study in what happens when the hippies inherit their parents wealth or too many artists are taught to read and write.