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European Professor: E=Mc² is "Sexed," Speed of Light is "Privileged"
Pundit Press ^ | 1/20/15 | Aurelius

Posted on 01/20/2015 3:34:48 PM PST by rightistight

Dr. Luce Irigaray has presented a philosophical statement that likely no other person has ever even considered: that E=Mc², the famed equation by Albert Einstein, is "sexed."

Irigaray, who describes herself as a "Feminist Philosopher," wrote her thoughts in the 1987 book Parler n’est jamais neutre. The quote was listed proudly recently by her current employer, The European Graduate School, as a cutting-edge example of their faculty's thinking.

The quote itself is as incoherent as it sounds, but we have decided to post it in its entirety below to make certain that all context is given:

"Is E=Mc² a sexed equation? Perhaps it is. Let us make the hypothesis that it is insofar as it privileges the speed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us. What seems to me to indicate the possible sexed nature of the equation is not directly its uses by nuclear weapons, rather it is having privileged that which goes faster."
E=Mc², of course, is a mathematical equation about energy, mass, and the speed of light, and is not "sexed" in any way, shape, or form.

(Excerpt) Read more at thepunditpress.com ...


TOPICS: Politics; Science
KEYWORDS: luceirigaray; privilege; stringtheory
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To: rightistight

Wait a second: Isn’t she just saying the simple truth that sex is natural? She can attribute traits more characteristic of one gender than another to virtually anything. She isn’t quoted as saying “E!=mc^2, but people only believe the false claim that E=mc^2 because of our male-dominated society,” but rather claims to be stating that the laws of physics are masculine... which corresponds to the notion of God the Father as masculine.

Her book is entitled, “Parler n’est jamais neutre.” That means “Talk is never neutral.” And in French, it isn’t! Every noun, verb and adjective has a gender.


21 posted on 01/20/2015 3:56:56 PM PST by dangus
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To: fhayek

Then again, the French say some things that sound really, really bizarre to Anglo Saxons. I had a good friend who was French and who lived in America for years, and she still made airy-fairy comments like this. I think its just them. At one point in their history, this thinking allowed Napoleon to conquer Europe . . . . .


22 posted on 01/20/2015 4:00:43 PM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: rightistight
"Let us say," indeed. That is not a "playful" modality, it is a deliberately obscure one. This, for example:

...it privileges the speed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us.

It doesn't. Equations equate. Left term, right term, and two little lines. That one speed is faster than another is not an issue of privilege, but of simple description.

This may, as the author suggests, be a case of analytical thinking running into a brick wall of whimsy, but in fact, whimsy loses when they collide, every time. It's nice to imagine that dropping a boulder on your bare foot is going to feel like a gentle massage, but try it for real and explain to your doctor that from a sufficiently advanced philosophical perspective the pain, broken bones, and the blood are all simply arbitrary social constructs. What is likely to ensue is covered under the philosophical term "involuntary commitment for the patient's own safety."

23 posted on 01/20/2015 4:01:54 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: rightistight
 photo ze_law.jpg
24 posted on 01/20/2015 4:02:03 PM PST by mikrofon (Overdose of "Irigarays")
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
Yeah, probably. I mean you could start off postulating that thunder and rain are masculine, and that the earth and soil are feminine. I mean there is a certain logic in that. You could then formulate an entire philosophy about man, nature, agriculture around that. You could write volumes about how mother earth is abused by the rapacious vicissitudes of violent weather. You probably would even be praised by the left. But, your givens are wrong. And as such, your whole argument would be nonsense.
25 posted on 01/20/2015 4:07:07 PM PST by fhayek
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To: rightistight

“Irigaray, who describes herself as a ‘Feminist Philosopher,’ “

I’m suddenly reminded of Bea Arthur’s scene in History of the World, Part 1...


26 posted on 01/20/2015 4:07:24 PM PST by DemforBush (Q. Why didn't the German get to eat his cake? A. Because it was stollen!)
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To: rightistight

Sadly, half of our population places on the LEFT side of the Bell Curve.


27 posted on 01/20/2015 4:09:51 PM PST by abclily
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To: rightistight

This reminds me of one of the first woman Engineers on the mars rover project- she insisted that the device was female so it had to have a female name.

The looks on the other engineers’ faces was priceless (facepalm)


28 posted on 01/20/2015 4:10:18 PM PST by Mr. K (Palin/Cruz 2016 (for 16 years of conservative bliss))
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To: abclily

Is her name pronounced I...rig...a...ray?


29 posted on 01/20/2015 4:11:40 PM PST by abclily
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To: Mr. K

Ships are female but a lot have male names. Confusing.


30 posted on 01/20/2015 4:11:40 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: rightistight

She is obviously not a PhD in any real subject.

And as such, her qualifications are not worth shi...er...Obamastuff.


31 posted on 01/20/2015 4:11:48 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
French out of German,

British writer Sir Peter Medewar in a (fairly brutal) review of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin:

The Phenomenon of Man stands square in the tradition of Naturphilosophie, a philosophical indoor pastime of German origin which does not seem even by accident (though there is a great deal of it) to have contributed anything of permanent value to the storehouse of human thought. French is not a language that lends itself naturally to the opaque and ponderous idiom of nature-philosophy, and Teilhard has according resorted to the use of that tipsy, euphoristic prose-poetry which is one of the more tiresome manifestations of the French spirit.

32 posted on 01/20/2015 4:38:14 PM PST by Oztrich Boy (Television: Teacher, Mother, Secret Lover)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
your typical, puritanical USA feminist

Oh what the hell? Did a malarkey truck turn over somewhere close to this thread?

33 posted on 01/20/2015 4:45:02 PM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: fhayek
Don't forget Sandra Harding's notorious phrase, "Newton's rape manual" from The Science Question in Feminism, Winner of the 1987 Jessie Bernard Award of the American Sociological Association:

... yes, I have it! Well, the poet did ask, rhetorically addressing the sweet spontaneous earth, "How often has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy beauty?"

34 posted on 01/20/2015 4:47:59 PM PST by dr_lew
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To: rightistight

Speed of light is sexist-

Like ‘Light in the Loafers’ is?


35 posted on 01/20/2015 4:50:43 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (/s /s /s /s /s, my replies are "liberally" sprinkled with them behind every word and letter.!)
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To: Scrambler Bob

Latin lux, feminine.
Spanish luz, feminine.
French lumiere, feminine.
Italian luce, feminine.
German Licht, neuter; Lampe, feminine.
Greek phos, masculine.


36 posted on 01/20/2015 5:20:35 PM PST by scrabblehack
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To: rightistight

Thus does physics fall into a thousand-year dark age. Probably in 200 years, nobody will know who Einstein was, and there will be no more nuclear power.


37 posted on 01/20/2015 5:20:49 PM PST by backwoods-engineer (Blog: www.BackwoodsEngineer.com)
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To: rightistight

Dr. Luce Irigaray: And if I stick a 2 x 4 up my rear and dunk myself in chocolate I become a fudgesicle. I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!


38 posted on 01/20/2015 5:23:36 PM PST by servo1969
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To: rightistight

WTF


39 posted on 01/20/2015 5:37:27 PM PST by VTenigma (The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: backwoods-engineer

Thus are the fruits of postmodern deconstructionism.
Intelligence is irrelevant.
Reason is futile.
This will lead to a society far to the left of Stalin, Mao, or even Pol Pot. Anyone beyond the chosen few elite that dare to think will be exterminated.


40 posted on 01/20/2015 5:42:52 PM PST by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
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