The outrageous core of pseudo philosophy can be defined by the claim that there is no such a thing as objective truth. It is not just the most inhuman insult, but it denies what enabled our species’ existence… Wisdom! “Sapiens”! How could there be wisdom without truth? The entire evolution of the genus Homo stands on achieving some truths. Enough truths to enable us to conquer the planet, the biosphere, and land on the Moon. The adversaries of our ancestors were extinguished, because they did not discover the most valuable truths fast enough. For example the truth of the atlatl, whose leverage made it possible for a javelin or dart to go much further, projecting power. Or the truth that clothing made of furs permitted Homo Ergaster to survive the winter in the Caucasus mountains… Two million years ago, on its way to conquer all of Eurasia.
Pseudo Philosophers attacking truth thus attack the human genus, and human genius, the very idea of wisdom, itself. They are getting confused by the way one gets to truth: through debate, that is, socially. Always. Even the most precise science is always the result of social debates (among the scientifically minded). Science, let alone wisdom, is fundamentally cultural, thus social. It is a truism… Although of course it means that all and any inchoate system of thought will always come to the fore as a tribal phenomenon. That is not a show-stopper, because there is no other way. But it is a warning, a tribal warning… Even for Big Bang theory (not for classical optics, which is 100% true).
So why is Pseudo Philosophy so popular? Because it is a cheap drug the established order wants We The People to be addicted to. Pseudo-philosophy attacks the notion of objective truth . If there is no objective truth, one cannot criticize systemic social inequality. Objective truth is the enemy of plutocracy, destroying it makes plutocracy free. And who is financing the top thinkeries (to use Aristophane’s word)? Plutocracy! So Plutocracy loves Pseudo Philosophy, as it hates truth.
Foucault made some valuable contributions to thinking, sometimes. But pseudo-everything is generally more popular with plutocrats… who finance not just the “top” universities, but own the media, worldwide (or influence it in pseudo-public outfits). Thus the careers and salaries of thinkers will come only if they can engage in pseudo-wisdom of a type satisfying plutocracy.
And that works, because real wisdom rising is harsh, contentious, cruel and brain-shattering: it is not friendly to the herd! And the herd wants comfort, pursue happiness! Deconstructing, and then reconstructing one’s brain is no small task, and it can be demeaning. The herd prefers to listen to pseudo-philosophers, all the more as, when pseudo-wisdom sings the praises of the established order, it is telling the herd that it lives in the best of all possible worlds… And the herd wants to hear that to be satisfied with its own sense of comfort…
In truth, there is not truth but the truth, and power is its prophet!
Patrice Ayme
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P/S 1: That was a comment to the following pretty good essay, which told the truth about Foucault and other “postmodernists”:
Pseudophilosophy encourages confused, self-indulgent thinking
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P/S 2:
I do not believe that there is no truth. One ought to define truth as what works (what else?) And of course there are lots of things which works, hence there are many truths. Yes, some quantum logicians have claimed quantum physics implies that there is “no truth”. It is a consequence of the many-world and multiverse interpretations of Quantum Physics. However those interpretations are not the only ones, there are other interpretations such as the De Broglie Pilot Wave, or objective collapse theories.
In any case, using the preceding definition of truth, if indeed somehow quantum logic implied that there is no truth, nothing would work. Maybe one should introduce virtual truth, namely operational neural networks… Which would work only as functioning brain circuitry (and not necessarily work as representations of the real world, namely what works out there). Those neural networks would incarnate Plato’s “forms”.Notice that a functioning neural network is a classical object. Whereas, an inchoate neural network is also surely partly an evolving quantum object. In general fundamental (quantum) processes are waves all over the place (that place is endowed with the structure of a Hilbert space), but in the end the process collapses down to points (the classical picture)… This is actually implies that virtual truths all over the place boil down to one 100% certain truth, in the end…
Tags: Postmodernism, Pseudophilosophy, Truth
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 
February 11, 2021 at 3:33 am |
You and your pseudo religious sayings, you are the new Aisha
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February 11, 2021 at 5:47 am |
Well, the writing/poetry in the Qur’an is always robust and often excellent… A source of inspiration.
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February 11, 2021 at 5:45 am |
Here in France intellectuels are fed up with Times’ hatred of France. Check the Observatoire du decolonialisme
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February 11, 2021 at 5:46 am |
New York Times barely spoke of the Holocaust during World War Two, because New York bankers and industrialists had greatly created Nazism, and wanted war to destroy Europe some more, to foster their (US) empire. Liberty Equality Fraternity is the greatest enemy of US plutocracy always
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February 13, 2021 at 1:51 am |
If you are part of the herd, you can’t think individually. Say an antelope running in the herd has to instinctively know the hive mind of the herd, or accidents happen.
Those little critters in the bushes though, have to listen to every sound and consider what it might mean.
One is religion, the other is science.
Even the sciences fall prey to the hive mind and authority rules objective thinking.
The only time for clear thought is when the system crashes and a few glimmers of light shine through the cracks.
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February 16, 2021 at 6:41 pm |
Indeed. Hive mind in science is the rule, not the exception. Relativity and the Quantum were forced on us. There was no alternative. Otherwise… Look at the Big Bang: the evidence is actually flimsy. What is strong is evolution of the universe, and expansion. The rest is much speculation. String theory (I worked on it) entirely speculative.
In biology, in 1960s, the “central dogma”, that information only flowed out of DNA was widely accepted while obviously false…
We are certainly in times where truth has a chance, if it learns to fight harder than its recently reinforced opponents.
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February 17, 2021 at 2:23 am |
I may have sent you this, but I’m still not sold on expansion;
Click to access 2008CChristov_WaveMotion_45_154_EvolutionWavePackets.pdf
As I pointed out previously, using redshift still means the speed of light is the base metric. More lightyears, as the universe “expands.” What is the basis of the speed of light, if not space itself?
As that article points out, multi spectrum light “packets” do redshift over distance, as the higher frequencies dissipate faster.
Otherwise arguing redshift is proof space itself is expanding, is logically incoherent, since the expansion is still being denominated in terms of an otherwise stable speed of light. Or at least stable enough that it is what this expansion is in relation to.
The problem then becomes that we are sampling a wave front, not observing individual photons and that goes to the irreducibility of the quantum/photon.
Here is an essay on the “loading theory of light;”
https://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/1344
As I kep pointing out about time, energy and the information extracted from it are not synonymous. They go opposite directions of time. Energy to the future, patterns to the past.
Energy drives the wave, the fluctuations rise and fall.
Which comes back to the universe, as galaxies are energy radiating out, toward infinity, while the structures settle back inward, toward equilibrium. Both entropic.
I guess I’ve brought this up before and the logic is pretty simple, but there is too much institutional inertia for very many people to even think it through.
I’m waiting on the James Webb, since it is largely designed to observe the background radiation and I’m betting that proves to be the light of ever further sources, shifted down into radio wave lengths, not the effect of some primordial event.
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February 17, 2021 at 2:24 am |
Sorry that whole paper downloaded. Here is a link with a space, if you want to block it.
h ttps://fqxi.org/data/forum-attachments/2008CChristov_WaveMotion_45_154_EvolutionWavePackets.pdf
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