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→Critical theory, post-modernism, and the death of objective truth
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We have been been warning ourselves since the dawn of civilization about the folly of using magic to take shortcuts. If we take {{author|Arthur C. Clarke}} at his word that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic then are we forgetting our oldest lessons? | We have been been warning ourselves since the dawn of civilization about the folly of using magic to take shortcuts. If we take {{author|Arthur C. Clarke}} at his word that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic then are we forgetting our oldest lessons? | ||
===[[Critical theory]], [[post-modernism]], and the death of objective truth=== | ===[[Critical theory]], [[post-modernism]], [[modernism]] and the death of objective truth=== | ||
Most conspiracy theories contain a grain of truth. Some are completely true. There has to be something for the credulous people to glom onto. The conspiracy theory of our time is critical theory | |||
Critical | [[Critical theory]]’s grain of truth, ironically, is that ''there is no truth''. This is its debt to post-modernism, and it is a proposition that contemporary rationalists find hard to accept. Those on the right — {{author|Douglas Murray}}’s {{br|The Madness of Crowds}} is an articulate example — and the left | ||
The irony deepens, for defenders of the enlightenment bring critical | The irony deepens, for defenders of the enlightenment bring critical theory to book for its ignorance of obvious truths, while critical theory itself has bootstrapped itself into assembling a new set of of objective truths, which happened to be different to the conventional enlightenment ones. | ||
The deep problem that critical theory has, all agree (from Christopher Hitchens, {{author|Richard Dawkins}}, {{author|Helen Pluckrose}}, {{author|Douglas Murray}} and recently {{author|Matthew Syed}}) is that something things — physical sciences are a favourite example — just ''are'' true. No amount of identifying with an alternative theory of gravity will stop you from hitting the ground if you throw yourself out of a window. | The deep problem that critical theory has, all agree (from Christopher Hitchens, {{author|Richard Dawkins}}, {{author|Helen Pluckrose}}, {{author|Douglas Murray}} and recently {{author|Matthew Syed}}) is that something things — physical sciences are a favourite example — just ''are'' true. No amount of identifying with an alternative theory of gravity will stop you from hitting the ground if you throw yourself out of a window. | ||
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On the other hand [https://www.city-journal.org/american-campus-as-a-factory Jacob Howland] made the interesting assertion recently that so completely has [[critical theory]] escape its [[postmodern]] origins, that it has become captured by, of all people the [[high modernist]]s who inhabit an intellectual world that seeks to solve all problems by top-down taxonomies and computation. | On the other hand [https://www.city-journal.org/american-campus-as-a-factory Jacob Howland] made the interesting assertion recently that so completely has [[critical theory]] escape its [[postmodern]] origins, that it has become captured by, of all people the [[high modernist]]s who inhabit an intellectual world that seeks to solve all problems by top-down taxonomies and computation. | ||
{{quote|''An illiberal alliance of technological corporatism and progressivism is rapidly turning universities into a “talent pipeline” for the digital age. When fully constructed, this pipeline will deliver a large and steady flow of human capital, packaged in certifiable skill sets and | {{quote|''An illiberal alliance of technological corporatism and progressivism is rapidly turning universities into a “talent pipeline” for the digital age. When fully constructed, this pipeline will deliver a large and steady flow of human capital, packaged in certifiable skill sets and monetised in social-impact or “pay-for-success” bonds. But the strongly particular or eccentric shapes of mind, character, and taste that make human beings, as John Stuart Mill says, “a noble and beautiful object of contemplation” would clog the talent pipeline.''}} | ||
Critical theory has escaped its usual confines in the liberal arts faculties of universities and is now inhabiting the management and human resource departments of corporations, and who are using their rationalist framework to advance what is a fairly radical political agenda. [[Critical theory]] is not an alternative narrative by which we can puncture the arrogant assumptions of the capitalist class: it has ''displaced'' them altogether and is making its own arrogant assumptions in their place. | Critical theory has escaped its usual confines in the liberal arts faculties of universities and is now inhabiting the management and human resource departments of corporations, and who are using their rationalist framework to advance what is a fairly radical political agenda. [[Critical theory]] is not an alternative narrative by which we can puncture the arrogant assumptions of the capitalist class: it has ''displaced'' them altogether and is making its own arrogant assumptions in their place. | ||