"Our minds categorize the world according to our sensibilities, and then remake the world in the forms of those interior devices. These structures, these others inevitabilities, we call esthetics. Sokal's and Chomsky's esthetics, as seen in the way they write, the way they behave, the way they appear: as nerd or nebbish or librarian; their ideas and hyperrationality: to the degree that they can be shown to be based on nothing but assumption; all are manifestations of the human need to describe oneself and the world in ways that conform to one's beliefs."
Now I think I understand the root of the problem for Cosma Shalizi:
From feudalism to post-humanism without the experience of bourgeois revolution. He doesn't know what culture is.
He imagines that he doesn't have a sensibility.
---
Jason Rhoades 1965-2006
Sad and stupid. Life is short.
update
The article calls it "heart failure"
Mr. Edenbaum might experience far less frustration if he actually took the time to listen to his opponents' views. By incessantly caricaturing others' positions, our angry friend succeeds only in discrediting himself.
ReplyDeleteWritten I assume, by a proponent of game theory.
ReplyDelete"By incessantly caricaturing others' positions..."
I don't respond to others positions, if that means no more than arguing politics with a cafe revolutionary. If I'm obligated to avoid commenting on my opponent's status as a cafe revolutionary, what's the point?