Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: TopQuark
From my standpoint, anyone defining himself as post-something-else has nothing to say:

Bullshit.

I used to milk cows. I don't do that anymore . . . I am presently enjoying my post-pharmer phaze of liphe.

I used to do boozze & pot. I don't do that anymore. I am presently enjoying my post-daze phaze of liphe.

I got lotsa shit to say.

Thanks for the ping, TQ . . . gotta run . . . marked for read. (I appreciate your work)

7 posted on 04/30/2002 7:58:44 AM PDT by Phil V.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]


To: Phil V.; TopQuark
Lol, Phil.

Thanks, Top Quark.

I guess I get just as tired of hearing the Nazis defined always in terms of anti-semitism as I do the Civil War's being all about the slavery.

Been a long time since I read this. Will give it another look.

8 posted on 04/30/2002 8:09:30 AM PDT by Askel5
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]

To: Phil V.
TQ: From my standpoint, anyone defining himself as post-something-else has nothing to say:

PV: Bullshit.

You are a bit too quick with the trigger, Phil. You may have missed that the point I was making was about the academe, where the standards are higher.

You can tell me that you are post-something, and I will listen for several reasons. Firstly, you are simply sharing thoughts about your life, which is important to you and important to your friends; and secondly, you may not yet fully grasp the essense of the present: most of us can make full sense of it when it is past. Thus, the best one can do is to say that this is my post-something period.

In academe none of these reasons apply. The author of the paper may uncover a deficiency in the previous work, but the field in general must move on to correct it. The objective is to create new knowledge. It is not sufficient for a chemist to say, "I am not a biologist." That does not advance chemistry: he has to produce new knoweldge, which will show as a consequence that, indeed, chemistry is different from biology.

Physics lends itself well as an example. We know two drastic developments of the XX century: the theory of relativity quantum theory. No one called them post-Newtonian physics precisely because it is not enough to say that Newtonian mechanics is not always correct.

You do not know any scientist --- physicist, chemist, biologist, geologist --- who draws a paycheck deconsrtucting anything. In the social disciplines, which call themselves "sciences," this is not only observed on occasion --- this is the dominant modus vivendi.

Now you can start shhoting, Phil.

9 posted on 04/30/2002 8:16:15 AM PDT by TopQuark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson