NP-po-pooing PoMo, futility for trhe feeble minded

[jody2.718]

T. Ekchardt offered:

https://areomagazine.com/2017/03/27/how-french-intellectuals-ruined-the-west-postmodernism-and-its-impact-explained/

As an example of a "recommendable article which criticises Postmodernism not from the right but in the name of the enlightenment."

An interesting read, but, I think, one sided. I'm not knowledgeable enough to defend PoMo. However, the article does seem to be a little simplistic with regards to what it refers to as "The Enlightenment."  The author takes for granted the beneficial effects of science and technology, while failing to deal with the seriously deleterious ones, as if the downside of science and technology could somehow be avoided by embracing the ideals of reason and an objective consideration of reality. She seems a little idealistic, if not enchanted.

For example:

"Despite this, science as a methodology is not going anywhere. It cannot be “adapted” to include epistemic relativism and “alternative ways of knowing.” It can, however, lose public confidence and thereby, state funding, and this is a threat not to be underestimated. Also, at a time in which world rulers doubt climate change, parents believe false claims that vaccines cause autism and people turn to homeopaths and naturopaths for solutions to serious medical conditions, it is dangerous to the degree of an existential threat to further damage people’s confidence in the empirical sciences."

Hello? She needs to complete the circuit- Climate change has not only been detected and proven by science, its acceleration has been caused by the heedless effects of science and technology. Vaccines may not be a cause of autism, but the scientific development of convenient organic chemicals and their heedless injection into the environment by a zillion unregulated drain pipes can't be a good thing for the developing brain- let alone their carcinogenic effects, and not to mention, the over use of broad spectrum antibiotics which has us all running like Alice in the garden of The Red Queen- just to keep one step ahead of the next super bug.

I don't know about Lyotard, Foucault and Derrida, but I could use some more of the likes of Voltaire, despite his shortcomings, and Jonathan Swift, as well.

jody

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