Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 20:08:41 BST From: STEVENBAYNE@delphi.com To: Members of the list Subject: Sokal the Uberhegel Sokal has snatched the illusion from the body of the naked emporer. It should be pointed out that despite the intentional blatherings that made a laughing stock of a "movement," even more ridiculous things have been said than what we find in the mindless jargon of the "deconstructionists," etc. Consider for example another commentary on the physics of one's day by none other than Hegel. Perhaps Hegel can be forgiven. His views on law and ethics DO make some sense; but look here at what follows when a self indulgent mind goes unrestrained, even one of the quality of Hegel's; then, reconsider the effluvium released from within the covers of _Social Text_. "Electricity ...is the purpose of the form from which it emancipates itself, it is the form that is just about to overcome its own indifference; for electricity is the immediate emergence, or the actuality just emerging, from the proximity of the form, and still determined by it -- not yet the dissolution,however, of the for, and still determined by it - not yet the dissolution, however, of the form itself, but rather the more superficial prog%..H1y which the differences desert the form which, however, they still retain, as their condition, having not yet grown into independence of and through them." -- Hegel (_Philosphy of Nature_ quoted by Karl Popper in _Conjectures and Refutations. Harper and Row. 1963. p.329. It would appear that Sokal makes imminently more sense than Hegel, indeed a closer look will reveal that Sokal's essay makes more sense than most all of what can be found in the issue of _Social Text_ in which his essay occurs. Additional guffaws can be had by examining practically anything on the history of positivism emanating from this movement. These folks are getting EXACTLY what they deserve. Steven Bayne