The Thought Occurs

Tuesday 29 August 2017

Intellectual Impostures

Sokal & Bricmont's INTELLECTUAL IMPOSTURES (downloadable pdf file)
"Our aim is, quite simply, to denounce intellectual posturing and dishonesty, from wherever they come." (p14)

Friday 25 August 2017

The Fourth Type Of Linguist

It used to be said that there are three types of linguist:
  • the ants, who patiently build, build, build;
  • the crows, who just pick, pick, pick;
  • the eagles, who soar on high, seeing further than all others.
But there is a fourth type:
  • the cuckoos, who lay their productions in the nests of another theorist, thereby having them cared for as if legitimate offspring.
In biology, this is termed brood parasitism.

Monday 7 August 2017

The Three "Dialects" Of Systemic Functional Arithmetic

1. The 2+2=3 "dialect"

2. The 2+2=4 "dialect"

3. The 2+2=5 "dialect"




I maintain that two and two would continue to make four,
in spite of the whine of the amateur for three,
or the cry of the critic for five.
 — James Whistler