From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Wed Dec 11 2002 - 01:21:04 MST
Hi Damien, welcome back!
> from MICHAEL HOLQUIST
> Sokal's Hoax: An Exchange
> [..]
> What bothered me was his phrase "the Einsteinian constant,"
> which I had never met in my work as a physicist.
Yeah, it really was bullshit (but understandable BS, see below).
> Lest the reader think that I am quoting out of context, or perhaps just
> being obtuse, I will point out that, in the discussion following Derrida's
> lecture, the first question was by Jean Hyppolite, professor at the College
> de France, who, after having sat through Derrida's talk, had to ask Derrida
> to explain what he meant by a "center." The paragraph quoted by Sokal was
> Derrida's answer.
Ah ha! I *thought* I remembered that! Here Sokal's
self-admitted "one-shot abuse" is about something that
Derrida said off the cuff in response to a question.
There is a limit to how much criticism he should get
for that. Why, just the other day, the soon to be
Majority leader of the American Senate said at a
birthday party [never mind]
> It was Hyppolite who introduced "the Einsteinian constant"
> into the discussion, but while poor Hyppolite was willing
> to admit that he did not understand what Derrida meant by
> a center,
Oh no. I had even forgotten that part! The phrase wasn't
even Derrida's.
> Derrida just started talking about the Einsteinian constant,
> without letting on that (as seems evident) he had no idea of
> what Hyppolite was talking about.
Ah, sad. We should all try to rise to the standard of thought
referred to earlier this evening by Lee Daniel Crocker, and
admit our mistakes (and our ignorance) freely. Poor guy. He
couldn't bring himself to say, "what is the Einsteinian constant"
because he feared that he might look like an ass to people more
scientifically knowledgeable than he.
> It seems to me that Derrida in context is even worse than
> Derrida out of context.
A different kind of "sin" altogether, if you ask me. Before
it was an alleged misuse of science, and now it is just CYA.
> Bear in mind that Hyppolite was not only an expert in
> Hegel's phenomenology, but was trained as well in the
> history and logic of the sciences.
>
> [Lee harrumphs at this latter phrase]
Hmm. No, doesn't push my buttons, for some reason, even
though I just finished a rant against "the scientific
method". The "history and logic of the sciences" strikes
me as just a harmless allusion to ready familiarity with
a lot of scientific concepts and arguments.
But "Hyppolite" was trained in the history and logic of
science? How strange that he should use a phrase like
"the Einsteinian constant"; maybe it made more sense in
French.
Lee
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