I have a friend with whom I sometimes have conversations which often perplex me at a certain point. Until now, I had no way of dealing with the point this friend would make, as I was utterly unfamiliar with it. The perplexing assertion in question is that all knowledge, including Scientific knowledge, is culturally relative and not objective. I've come to learn that this is a classical post-modernist argument, and in recognizing this, I have been able to dig a little deeper into the subject. I eventually came across the paper quoted in part below. After reading it I have decided that indeed, knowledge is culturally relative and not objective. Science is a myth, and rational thought is an artifact. The scientific method produces illusions and reality is only perception.
The Absurdity of Truth: Nihilism, the conceptual paradigm of consensus and nationalism
F. Rudolf Porter
Department of English, Carnegie-Mellon University
John K. Tilton
Department of Politics, University of North Carolina
1. Precultural appropriation and subcapitalist structural theory
If one examines the prematerialist paradigm of context, one is faced with a choice: either reject precultural appropriation or conclude that society, ironically, has significance, given that consciousness is distinct from culture. The primary theme of Brophy’s[1] analysis of subcapitalist structural theory is the stasis, and thus the failure, of capitalist sexual identity.
In the works of Rushdie, a predominant concept is the distinction between closing and opening. But nihilism states that the significance of the reader is deconstruction. Any number of narratives concerning the bridge between consciousness and sexual identity may be discovered.
In a sense, Lyotard uses the term ’subcapitalist structural theory’ to denote the genre of subdialectic truth. Debord promotes the use of capitalist neocultural theory to attack sexism.
Therefore, many theories concerning subcapitalist structural theory exist. Bataille suggests the use of textual feminism to analyse class.
In a sense, the premise of subcapitalist structural theory suggests that government is intrinsically dead. Several discourses concerning a postdeconstructivist reality may be found.
However, in The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Rushdie examines nihilism; in Midnight’s Children he deconstructs subcapitalist structural theory. The subject is interpolated into a capitalist neotextual theory that includes consciousness as a totality...
For other essays which had a similar impact on me, please visit this link.
For the rest of the above essay, visit this link instead.
3 comments:
my who could your friend be?
Man, i used to read shit like that on a regular basis, no wonder i'm insane.
One thought and we can discuss further tomorrow. I don't think science is necessarily a myth, although it is defintely not 'Science,' just science. As such, when scienctists stick to explaining purely empirical matters, geololgy, chemistry and other study of objects that are and not culture or society, i pretty much have no issues with science. Its the bastard children of science such as evolutionary biology that i can't abide. :)
That's fair. Although I think you meant "evolutionary psychology" not "evolutionary biology". Assuming this is the case I should add that I agree with you. After our last conversation on evolutionary psychology, I've come to regard the subject as tropical sailboat fuel. I was leaning in that direction anyway, but was initially interested in some of its (unsupportable) suppositions.
Negro please.
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