Chomskys Unreasonable Requests To Post ModernistsChomsky's request for a theory of foreign affairs and large scale conflict-resolution that is tested and verified (and later on: capable of leading by valid argument to conclusions, and can be explained to him using his language) is a bit weird, least to say, especially because he seems to be calling for a theory in the sense as those are found in the Natural Sciences. The problem is that post-modernist, or (as I would rather call them) relativistic theories are more about suggesting a different way of looking than about proof and verification, let alone valid argumentation (in the logical sense). Now don't get me wrong, critical, yet pragmatic thinking is - and in my view more - central to relativistic views than to modernistic ones. "Anything goes" (in the modernist sense of interlectual degeneration) is not what you will find with those who did understand relativism. Relativism doesn't mean chaos, but at most contingence. In my view the primary tenet of this (post-modernist) relativism is that language (including logic!) is not "flat" nor absolute or neutral like Euclidian space both internally and between people (this statement itself is not new, nor complex, but it's consequences are far reaching). Theories on foreign affairs or large scale conflict resolution (or any other "big story theory", like speculative history-writing like that of HeGel) are by definition hard to test or experiment with because the situations they try to explain or clarify are not frequent enough for that. Moreover it seems very likely that they cannot be scaled down or be taken apart into constituent parts (like individuals or other "atoms") for dissection in a lab and still function in the same or comparable way to function like proof. The fact that these theories are more uncertain does not make them useless. To the contrary: the more important the subject the less certain we can be about it (or should a captain focus only on the engine room on a foggy day ?). Relativism in general, but the sociology of Luhmann in particular is very insightfull for conflict situations. Of course one could say that relativism does not bring not much new for modernists - as even dayly language can already handle many relativistic situations... - or that relativism brings just bad or even scary things (like accepting that morality and rights are contingent). |
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