TimS comments on George Orwell's Prelude on Politics Is The Mind Killer - Less Wrong

10 [deleted] 29 March 2012 04:27PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Article Navigation

Comments (285)

Comments (285)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: TimS 31 March 2012 02:52:09AM 2 points [-]

Thanks for the link. Whatever the merits of post-modern thought, I don't think King was a post-modernist. Assuming that the FBI was right to monitor him, what did he do to further the Communist agenda?

And I don't really agree that your link was a fair minded view of post-modernism, or that it was a poison-meme from the Soviet Union.

Comment author: [deleted] 31 March 2012 10:51:40AM 1 point [-]

According to this article, postmodernism seems to be, in its barest essence, a form of impious iconoclasm as applied to the analysis of traditional concepts. It's a very honoured tradition in Western Philosophy: in one century of democracy, the Athenians managed to practically destroy their entire body of traditions by discovering the base, petty group interests behind the so-called "sacred" and "natural" laws of their City.

Comment author: TimS 31 March 2012 06:14:42PM 0 points [-]

Let me just say that I don't think that post-modernism can be thought of as Socratic iconoclasm. I think it has valuable insights, many of which have been co-opted by more "rationalist" philosophy.

For example, I don't think Michel Foucault can profitably be described as a nihilist. And whatever his sympathies to the Soviet Union (it appears that it was different at different stages of his life), I think the idea that he was generating poison-memes on behalf of the Soviet Union is ludicrous.

Comment author: [deleted] 31 March 2012 07:16:30PM *  3 points [-]

I would downvote your post because of the way its statements seem to be disjointed to each other, but I'd rather not have your post go below threshold, so I'll directly ask you:

  • Why do you not think that post-modernism can be thought of as a form of methodological and cultural iconoclasm, and in hwat measure do you think it is not comparaabe to the efforts of Socrates and his contemporaries... and the backlash they suffered because of it.

  • What are those valuable insights you talk of, and what is that quote "ratonalist" unquote philosophy that has coopted many of them?

  • Why would Foulcault be described as a nihilist?
  • You are aware that Appeal to Ridicule advances the discussion excatly nowhere. Why do you think the fact that he was "spreading poision memes on behalf of the Soviet Union" to be remarkably unlikely and incongruous?
Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit