Date: Wed, 22 Nov 1995 17:56:32 -0500 (EST)
From: V600A8E6-AT-ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Subject: Re: one aspect of "modernity"


GENERAL OBSERVATION
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Perhaps one of the most egregious ideological obfuscations inherent in 
definitions of modernity and/or postmodernity is the confusion between 
the *USE* of science and the *CONTENT* of science.  They are not 
identical, yet they are almost always confounded.  

It is thought that the deployment of terms such as "paradigms," 
"narratives," "perspectives," "world-views," along with petty-bourgeois 
idealist trends such as relativism, pluralism, centrisms, etc., deal 
severe death blows to "scientism."  First of all, most people who launch 
pseudo-critiques of, say, positivism, don't know the first shit about 
positivism.  I've asked so many people what it is that they think they 
are railing against when they think they are demolishing 
positivism/empiricism and most don't know what the shit they're talking 
about.  In other words, it's the old strawman bullshit.  These are the 
same captives of false consciousness who have never read (never mind 
studied) Marx, Engels and Lenin, but take full liberty to dismiss or 
demolish what they have said.

Oh yeah, another scandalous error made by those who think they are 
opposed to "scientism" is confusing THEORY-LADEN investigation with 
THEORY-DETERMINED investigation.  But try telling these captives of false 
consciousness that all this is merely an expression of the moribund 
character of imperialism, and they still don't effectively comprehend 
what the shit you are saying.

Quine, Kuhn, Feyerabend, Goodman, Harding, Winch, Meiland, Gadamer, 
Rorty, and hundreds of other bourgeois-minded "prize-fighters" remain 
warmly embraced.  And these are only the ideological mystifiers in the 
philosophy of science, sorry, the "new philosophy of science."


Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
V600A8E6-AT-UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU


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