----- Original Message ----- From: "Wojtek S" <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
[WS:] However, he is not an exception - if it is any excuse. A great deal of what passes for "theory" or "philosophy" - especially in social sciences and the humanities is nothing more than Public Displays of Erudition (PDE). - basically dense writing liberally sprinkled with terminology of author's own invention and profuse references to other writings, the more obscure the better. The main purpose of such exercises is to show how erudite the writer is rather than advance knowledge in any way.
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I'd say it's more like establishing connections to the (classic/elite) universe with which academia wants to identify.
What's really striking about academia is how little originality and thought happen there, especially given the claim that all of it happens there. Most of what happens is rather an unceasing positioning within a given academic fad/movement. This positioning never questions the fad, it just finds a little piece of real estate in it and claims it.
>From what my physics friends tell me, this form of idiocy is not restricted to the humanities.
Yes, I have run across fantastically great academic writers. They're just few and far between.
Joanna