Simon Blackburn

Postmodernism is a celebration of relativism. It is a movement that has actively embraced the collapse of standards that it takes this to imply. This paper examines the debate between postmodernists and their opponents, approaching it through the debate over Alan Sokal’s famous hoax.

This paper contrasts two ways of understanding the function of human thought and language. According to representationalism, the function of thought and language is to refer to entities in the world and assert truths about them. By contrast, pragmatism seeks to understand the function of thought and language without any such appeal, at the most fundamental level, to the concepts of truth or reference.

In een reactie op Scrutons beweringen over de teloorgegane waarden van religie stelt Blackburn dat het heilige ook kan bestaan zonder transcendente onderbouwing. Hij vraagt zich in een filosofische beschouwing af of religieuze gebruiken wel zoveel verschillen van de vele andere voortbrengselen van de menselijke geest.