Re: unusual language [postmodernism]

Marcy Bauman (marcyb@UMD.UMICH.EDU)
Fri, 11 Oct 1996 14:12:15 -0400


On Fri, 11 Oct 1996, Jeffrey R Galin wrote:

> How would you demarcate modernism from
> postmodernism (categories developed within the field of literature) within
> the scientific field?

Um, how about with the advent of quantum mechanics and chaos
theory? Chaos theory, anyway, arose in the sixties, didn't it? You
could also argue (and I would) that supercomputers made it possible for
people to understand that the scientific problems -- or maybe the
problems science was supposed to help us understand and solve -- were not
going to be solved by data and the manipulation of numbers. Calculation
itself was no longer the limiting factor.

> BTW Marcy, it is conversations like these that help us to call
> into question our current practices.

Yup, I agree. But inasmuch as we share assumptions, our
assumptions will never (can never) be questioned.

Marcy

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Marcy Bauman
Writing Program
University of Michigan-Dearborn
4901 Evergreen Rd.
Dearborn, MI 48128

Web page: http://www.umd.umich.edu/~marcyb
email: marcyb@umd.umich.edu
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