Social Text issue

[Andrew Dinn]

eaeg at unity.ncsu.edu writes:

> Stanley Fish [...] says that sociologists of science have always
> debated the relative merits of scientific theory, that the issue is
> not whether there is a "real" world out there but how we understand
> it, and that it is Sokal who violates the trust of an academic
> community which is necessary to inquiry in his own field.

I am glad someone said this. The same is true of maths as well as
science. Mathematicians and scientists who engage in this debate keep
on presuming that the philosophical arguments are attempting to revise
scientific or mathematical truths whereas in fact the argument is
about the nature of scientific and mathematical truth. LudWit has
frequently been bashed by mathematicians and scientists thanks to
exactly this misapprehension on the part of the bashers.

re the alt.postmodern debate I presume you mean the one between Silke
and Weemba which recently spilled over into rec.arts.books. Is Weemba
no longer on the list?


Andrew Dinn
-----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.