File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_1998/lyotard.9811, message 9


Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 13:33:01 -0800
From: hugh bone <hughbone-AT-worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: PMC: What is Postmodernism? A Demand


Smith, Donald S wrote:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yes, it would seem that science as truth is a metanarrative, and
powerful, and it has for many superseded the metanarrative of religion,
but not the cult of the nation-state, nor corporate entities which have
more power than small nations and and are able to manipulate large
nations.

The Postivists seemed to confuse their ideas with the phenomena they
observed, forgetting that mankind can say things about phenomena, make
observations of Nature's regularities, discover, devise, invent "laws", 
of Nature, while the phenomena of Nature remain unchanged.

Since Divine revelation was abandoned as the source of truth, science
makes general claims for truth in a philosophical sense, but, in
specific
areas of theory and experiment, takes the conservative position of
accepting as true certain findings, laws, etc. which have not been
proven false.

Hugh Bone

-AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT-  


science serves power.  

 
> > Sadeq,
> > you asked,
> > >
> > >       I have questions regarding the idea that  "[science] produces a
> > >discourse of legitimation with respect to its own status, a discourse
> > >called philosophy" (p. xxiii).
> 
> I think Lyotard meant that when science attempts to use observation to
> "prove" truth rather than just to provide utilitarian guidelines (or in
> Lyotard's words, "useful regularities"), it necessarily employs metaphysics,
> a branch of philosophy, to legitimate its claims. Of course it does not do
> so overtly as that would undermine its claims as truth based. This
> "legitimation" of science as truth is so pervasive that it has entered the
> realm of common sense for the average person. Through a metanarrative of its
> own called positivism, science claims that "positive knowledge is based on
> natural phenomenon... as verified by observation" - Webster) and further
> that this positive knowledge is absolute truth.
> 
> Events over the last decade in the scientific world such as the shift from
> Newtonian physics to quantum physics have shown that what was once thought
> to be absolute knowledge is only transitory. This has undermined scientific
> truth claims and shown science to be just another, if very useful,
> metaphysics.
> 
> The poststructuralist Challenge of the metanarrative of science as truth and
> its resultant role in determining modern culture has been one of the most
> important postmodern shifts. I think that's why Lyotard mentioned it so
> early in his introduction.
> 
> Don


   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005