Philosophy Now Forum

But we old-timers will look back fondly at the magnificence of postmodernisms

mickthinks wrote:meh - I think it's a debate for poseurs.

bdubay wrote:Thanks, Alan Kirby,

It is with some relief that postmodernism is dead. It was such a butt of late-nite jokes and scurrilous slander by newspaper editors, who characterized postmodernists as relativist hippies of no particular values or beliefs. Science will breathe a sigh of relief and hope again for some restoration of its smudged Enlightenment prestige.

And it is quite postmodern than postmodernism passes on and gives way to new worlds and new visions. The new label, pseudo-modernism is an appropriate moniker for postmodernism's lively progeny so well described in your fortunate article.

But we old-timers will look back fondly at the magnificence of postmodernisms accomplishments and the brilliance of its champions. Who can forget the likes of Hume, Vico, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Peirce, James, Dewey, Barth, Derrida, Rorty, and Popper? Their rejection of dualism, absolutism of every kind, and correspondence theory, their insistence on the limitations human knowledge, the solidarity of the human family, and the place of emotion in human thought and learning--all set their indelible mark on us, our times, and on history.

But, maybe, it is not over until its over. Newcomers such as Americans Lakoff and Johnson still have something to say. They show that the human body not only limits knowledge, but also makes it possible and shapes it. This is such a happy corrective for both postmodern philosophy and cognitive science! They don't quite get the fly out of the bottle, but they do show that human thought and language are not entirely arbitrary, but grounded in bodily experience.

Most radically, they suggest that the brain uses the same nerve regions for sensory-motor processing as for thought. This is an evolutionary economy that uses the same structures for more than one purpose.

This suggestion implies that any organism that can feel and move can categorize experiences and make distinctions between them, enabling them at least to distinguish between food and not food, enemies and friends. This suggests that other animals not only share our genes, but they also in a fundamental way think like us. Because they have different bodies, their languages and modes of thought are different. But even an octopus (with its 9 brains), can conceptualize, compare, contrast, conjecture, speculate, and experiment.

Often in observing the behavior of an animal, I have thought, "If I had a body like that, that's exactly how I would react." Postmodernism still has a few more thrilling thoughts to reveal, and these are very exciting times.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

mickthinks wrote:meh - I think it's a debate for poseurs.

Stop posing on PN, fuck off and find a more appropriate forum for your dead brain .

Here's one I know you will love.
http://soaps.sheknows.com/messageboard/
At least you know something about it, which is more that you can say for philosophy.

mickthinks wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

mickthinks wrote:meh - I think it's a debate for poseurs.

Stop posing on PN, fuck off and find a more appropriate forum for your dead brain .

Here's one I know you will love.
http://soaps.sheknows.com/messageboard/
At least you know something about it, which is more that you can say for philosophy.

LOL Hobby, your Dunning is well-and-truly Krugered! Remember this: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15189&p=218874 ? Other readers might wonder why I haven't followed my own advice here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15042&p=197161

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

bdubay wrote:Thanks, Alan Kirby,

It is with some relief that postmodernism is dead. It was such a butt of late-nite jokes and scurrilous slander by newspaper editors, who characterized postmodernists as relativist hippies of no particular values or beliefs. Science will breathe a sigh of relief and hope again for some restoration of its smudged Enlightenment prestige.

And it is quite postmodern than postmodernism passes on and gives way to new worlds and new visions. The new label, pseudo-modernism is an appropriate moniker for postmodernism's lively progeny so well described in your fortunate article.

But we old-timers will look back fondly at the magnificence of postmodernisms accomplishments and the brilliance of its champions. Who can forget the likes of Hume, Vico, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Peirce, James, Dewey, Barth, Derrida, Rorty, and Popper? Their rejection of dualism, absolutism of every kind, and correspondence theory, their insistence on the limitations human knowledge, the solidarity of the human family, and the place of emotion in human thought and learning--all set their indelible mark on us, our times, and on history.

But, maybe, it is not over until its over. Newcomers such as Americans Lakoff and Johnson still have something to say. They show that the human body not only limits knowledge, but also makes it possible and shapes it. This is such a happy corrective for both postmodern philosophy and cognitive science! They don't quite get the fly out of the bottle, but they do show that human thought and language are not entirely arbitrary, but grounded in bodily experience.

Most radically, they suggest that the brain uses the same nerve regions for sensory-motor processing as for thought. This is an evolutionary economy that uses the same structures for more than one purpose.

This suggestion implies that any organism that can feel and move can categorize experiences and make distinctions between them, enabling them at least to distinguish between food and not food, enemies and friends. This suggests that other animals not only share our genes, but they also in a fundamental way think like us. Because they have different bodies, their languages and modes of thought are different. But even an octopus (with its 9 brains), can conceptualize, compare, contrast, conjecture, speculate, and experiment.

Often in observing the behavior of an animal, I have thought, "If I had a body like that, that's exactly how I would react." Postmodernism still has a few more thrilling thoughts to reveal, and these are very exciting times.

Obviously Kirby thinks that PM and the entire body of 20thC thinking can just be replaced, with what?
Facebook presumably?
What a tit.