Sunday, August 09, 2009

Seduction of jargon

[Postmodernism had descended into jargon-laden decadence by the mid-1990’s, and the point that “the editors knew who Sokal was when they published the article, and knew he was considered an important scientist” doesn’t cut much ice with me... I definitely would have rejected it. Critical Animal on Sokal
from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek]

[The formulaic reduction of Integral Education to a set of prescriptions revolving around theoretical terms, such as "finding and acting from one's psychic being" parallels, on the one hand, the reified metaphysics and theology of "integral psychology" or "integral religion" ... I mean that prescriptions as to content or quality in the development of moral subjects should be replaced by the care to ground language in experience, both for the teacher and the student. Re: Sri Aurobindo's Integral Education in Contemporary Higher Education Debashish Sat 08 Aug 2009 01:42 PM PDT]

[MacLean illustrates this point facetiously when he points out that when a psychiatrist asks his patient to lie down on the couch he is asking him to stretch alongside a horse and a crocodile. 8:53 PM]

That all of us fall prey to the seduction of jargon is too well known just as the analysand enchanted by his own voice talks it out all or the Khayal singer who often happens to be the last person in the auditorium. [TNM]

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