There is no there there. Feminist physics? Feminist mathematics? Rubbish. Elaborate makework for minds confused by doctrine, rather like reading medieval confabulations of numerology and pseudo-science. Why Ms. Pinnick thinks she has to give the concepts – ever so elaborately – the benefit of the doubt is beyond me. I lost patience after the second or third empty signal that now – at last – we were getting down to brass tacks. I am willing to listen to feminist anything, but any exponent of an idea who wishes to influence others has an obligation to clarity (another arbitrary male value, I suppose). Glad I did not have to endure this kind of drivel when I took my degree.
There\’s a really nifty site somewhere devoted to all the species of faulty logic,reductio ad absurdum etc. I can never find it to hand when I most want it. I\’m sure there\’s a classic template for the way you jump from, \”there were no universities; the Catholic Church, which ruled Europe, started the universities; therefore there would have been no universities without the Catholic Church.\”
There is no dinner; my wife cooks dinner; therefore, without my wife there would be no dinner.
There is truth mixed in with the illogic. Separating them is the task. The ox in its simplicity may mistake the farmer\’s hand for life itself.
In a more insidious and damaging form this same co-opting of human inevitabilities takes place with sexuality. The Catholic Church and its protestant offspring, through the use of all-encompassing sexual taboos, surround the budding sexuality of the young and thereby control, not just the attitudes and expressions of sexual feeling, but the entire persona. Artificially creating guilt, then artificially relieving the guilt they caused. When this takes place at a cultural level it requires the sacrifice of many individual lives to even begin to bring it to light.
Not so much an eye for an eye as \”These bastards have blinded us for far too long.\”
I personally don\’t want to see all priests suffer for the molestation my father endured from one as a child. And the bitter echoes of that molestation won\’t stop because the Vatican pours a few million into some local economy. I want the arrogance of this nonsense done with. Over. No more.
The sexual molestation of the young is just one aspect of the total. Spiritual molestation, psychological molestation, the crippling of scientific inquiry from before Galileo to the end of the 20th century…you seem to think rage against that is a personal failing. It\’s not. It\’s a human response to an inhuman presence. And in that it requires courage.
Re: Notes and Comments, esp. What Did Sokal & Bricmont Really Say? 04-02-2004
Perhaps when he said \”populist postmodernism\”, Adair was searching for something like a parallel to \”vulgar Marxism\”. It is much simpler to say that all points of view are equally valid than to admit that, while no point of view can be taken as the only source of true statements, many points of view cannot withstand serious criticism. After all, serious criticism is a lot of work: looking for logical inconsistencies and checking the evidence take much more than the proverbial \”moment\’s thought\”.
On another point, I second the motion for Hazlitt. I have no quotes to offer, nor any favorite essays to recommend, but I will say that after reading his elegant prose and his brisk thinking I feel as if I had just opened the window in a stuffy room.
Fundamental Epistemology
By Cassandra L. Pinnick
There is no there there. Feminist physics? Feminist mathematics? Rubbish. Elaborate makework for minds confused by doctrine, rather like reading medieval confabulations of numerology and pseudo-science. Why Ms. Pinnick thinks she has to give the concepts – ever so elaborately – the benefit of the doubt is beyond me. I lost patience after the second or third empty signal that now – at last – we were getting down to brass tacks. I am willing to listen to feminist anything, but any exponent of an idea who wishes to influence others has an obligation to clarity (another arbitrary male value, I suppose). Glad I did not have to endure this kind of drivel when I took my degree.
Steve Kellmeyer-
There\’s a really nifty site somewhere devoted to all the species of faulty logic,reductio ad absurdum etc. I can never find it to hand when I most want it. I\’m sure there\’s a classic template for the way you jump from, \”there were no universities; the Catholic Church, which ruled Europe, started the universities; therefore there would have been no universities without the Catholic Church.\”
There is no dinner; my wife cooks dinner; therefore, without my wife there would be no dinner.
There is truth mixed in with the illogic. Separating them is the task. The ox in its simplicity may mistake the farmer\’s hand for life itself.
In a more insidious and damaging form this same co-opting of human inevitabilities takes place with sexuality. The Catholic Church and its protestant offspring, through the use of all-encompassing sexual taboos, surround the budding sexuality of the young and thereby control, not just the attitudes and expressions of sexual feeling, but the entire persona. Artificially creating guilt, then artificially relieving the guilt they caused. When this takes place at a cultural level it requires the sacrifice of many individual lives to even begin to bring it to light.
Not so much an eye for an eye as \”These bastards have blinded us for far too long.\”
I personally don\’t want to see all priests suffer for the molestation my father endured from one as a child. And the bitter echoes of that molestation won\’t stop because the Vatican pours a few million into some local economy. I want the arrogance of this nonsense done with. Over. No more.
The sexual molestation of the young is just one aspect of the total. Spiritual molestation, psychological molestation, the crippling of scientific inquiry from before Galileo to the end of the 20th century…you seem to think rage against that is a personal failing. It\’s not. It\’s a human response to an inhuman presence. And in that it requires courage.
Re: Notes and Comments, esp. What Did Sokal & Bricmont Really Say? 04-02-2004
Perhaps when he said \”populist postmodernism\”, Adair was searching for something like a parallel to \”vulgar Marxism\”. It is much simpler to say that all points of view are equally valid than to admit that, while no point of view can be taken as the only source of true statements, many points of view cannot withstand serious criticism. After all, serious criticism is a lot of work: looking for logical inconsistencies and checking the evidence take much more than the proverbial \”moment\’s thought\”.
On another point, I second the motion for Hazlitt. I have no quotes to offer, nor any favorite essays to recommend, but I will say that after reading his elegant prose and his brisk thinking I feel as if I had just opened the window in a stuffy room.