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Intellectuals EducationSources.ca Topic Index Against Post-Modernism A Marxist Critique Resource Type: Book Published: 1982 Callinocos argues that the relativism preached by post-modernist leaves us with no objective criteria by which to reject those who would falsify the past. Chomsky on MisEducation Resource Type: Book Published: 2000 Chomsky critiques the education system and discusses what education could be like in a democratic society. Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science Resource Type: Book Published: 1998 The authors criticize postmodernism in academia for its misuses of scientific and mathematical concepts in postmodern writing. Fashionable Nonsense examines two related topics: (1) The incompetent and pretentious usage of scientific concepts by a small group of influential philosophers and intellectuals; (2) the problems of cognitive relativism, the idea that "modern science is nothing more than a 'myth', a 'narration' or a 'social construction' among many others". The stated goal of the book is not to attack "philosophy, the humanities or the social sciences in general...[but] to warn those who work in them (especially students) against some manifest cases of charlatanism," and in particular to "deconstruct" the notion that some books and writers are difficult because they deal with profound and difficult ideas. "If the texts seem incomprehensible, it is for the excellent reason that they mean precisely nothing." The book includes long extracts from the works of Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Paul Virilio, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Luce Irigaray, Bruno Latour, and Jean Baudrillard who are considered by some to be leading academics of Continental philosophy, critical theory, psychoanalysis or social sciences. Sokal and Bricmont set out to show how those intellectuals have used concepts from the physical sciences and mathematics incorrectly. The extracts are intentionally rather long to avoid accusations of taking sentences out of context. Published in French as Impostures Intellectuelles and in the United Kingdom as Intellectual Impostures. Harter's Precept: Review of The Social Misconstruction of Reality: Validity and Verification in the Scholarly Community Resource Type: Article/Report/Letter Published: 1997 Hamilton gives three major examples of erroneous theses that gained the status of fact in social science despite the absence of evidentiary support: (1) Max Weber's thesis that the Protestant Ethic spurred the advance of capitalism; (2) the widely accepted thesis that Hitler's main electoral support came from the lower middle classes (the despised petit bourgeoisie of Marxism); and (3) Michel Foucault's thesis that the modern prison evolved not as a more humane alternative to the cruel physical punishments of earlier centuries, but as part of a wide-ranging scheme by sinister forces to enforce a pervasive social conformity. Postmodern Disrobed Review of Intellectual Impostures Resource Type: Article/Report/Letter Published: 1998 An admirable job of exposing the daffy absurdity of postmodernism intellectuals. Rationality/Science Resource Type: Article/Report/Letter Published: 1995 Chomsky writes: "It strikes me as remarkable that the left today should seek to deprive oppressed people not only of the joys of understanding and insight, but also of tools of emancipation, informing us that the "project of the Enlightenment" is dead, that we must abandon the "illusions" of science and rationality--a message that will gladden the hearts of the powerful, delighted to monopolize these instruments for their own use." The Social Misconstruction of Reality Validity and Verification in the Scholarly Community Resource Type: Book Published: 1996 Analyzes erroneous theses that gained the status of fact in social science despite the absense of evidentiary support, and examines why this happened. Speaking and Language Defence of Poetry Resource Type: Book Published: 1972 Goodman writes, "I do not think there can be a rule for the appropriate use of formal or vernacular language...The best is to try for a vernacular that molds itself to what is going on and to use it critically". The Trouble with Theory The Educational Costs of Postmodernism Resource Type: Book Published: 2008 Postmodern theory has engaged the hearts and heads of the brightest students because of its apparent political and social radicalism. Yet Kitching writes: "At the heart of postmodernism is very poor, deeply confused, and misbegotten philosophy. As a result even the very best students who fall under its sway produce radically incoherent ideas about language, meaning, truth, and reality."

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