Re: no problem
J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Tue, 24 Nov 1998 18:06:26 -0500 (EST)
See, that's just what you can't say, Paul. You can't say the piece had
no meaning because the author decided it was meaningless. This is an
example of a piece having no conscious intent by the author, but
potentially having some meaning on its own.
Do you realize how difficult it is to truly write a meaningless sentence?
If the author of the piece had truly succeeded in his intent, everyone
would have known.
What was really happening was that the piece probably appeared to be
saying some one thing in particular, but didn't. Not that it didn't have
any meaning at all.
Jim
On Tue, 24 Nov 1998 04:19:19 -0500 Paul Janse <PJanse@compuserve.com>
writes:
>There was also the recent case of the physicist Alan Sokal who wrote a
>completely nonsensical article which he submitted to the journal
>Social
>Science, which has a high scientific standing. The paper was accepted.
>Sokal's aim was to denounce the way physics and mathematics are used
>by
>(especially) French philosophers and sociologists to impress the
>readers.=
>
>The editors of the journal an all the readers were evidently able and
>prepared to see some meaning which was never there.
>
>Paul Janse
>
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