@lazarski@OCRbot Really entertaining reading - hopefully there's no real human tragedy behind it :) And I think social sciences did draw a lesson to some extent from Sokal/Gricmont and Grievance studies
@kravietz (Couldn't find a language with the name 'really', falling back to default.)
Image 1: hegelianwife 16 2019-09-21 15:14:05
My husband and I are both academics. We've been married for 3 years, and been together for 6. He is an academic philosopher and I am a physicist. He has recently expressed displeasure that I've never seriously engaged with his work. Now, I've read a bit of the classics of philosophy, but my husband's work is more in what I'm told is called the "continental" tradition. Unfortunately, everything he's shown me has just seems completely insane.
Here's the problem: his work apparently involves claims about physics that are just wrong, and wrong in a very embarrassing way! I'll admit, I'm a terrible person, but I had never read his thesis before. I tried reading it and it's riddled with talk about for instance the necessary relationship between matter having "extension" and possessing mass. He also talks about the "shape" of fundamental particles. This is obviously nonsensical/wrong; electrons have mass and are point particles (they don't take up space really). In the thesis and some other papers he wrote he seems to think of himself as "scientific" and a "materialist" but his entire idea of what these words mean is stuck in like, outdated 19th century ideas about atoms as little billiard balls flying
around in space. I've gently tried to help him and explain how he might start to engage seriously with contemporary physics (he has never read a book on the subject and is by his own admission "bad at math’), but he just gets angry with me and explains that Hegel's system is presuppositional and the basis for all possible rational thought so there is no need at all to read other texts in the first place (I have no idea what this means). He will throw out terms like "speculative propositions" but when I ask him to explain what this means or give me
examples he just starts giving me more inscrutable jargon that makes no sense. On top of that, he will repeatedly say German phrases or terms that he uses (and pronounces) incorrectly (1 am a native speaker) or nonsensically. He claims to understand the language (he doesn't) and tells me that Hegel can only be understood "in the original German" but he clearly can't read the language and when I've tried to read the original texts they make even less sense.
Image 2: On top of this, his obsession with Hegel himself has reached the point of creepiness. At one point he literally told me that all other work either agrees with Hegel so is redundant, or disagrees with Hegel and is wrong. He keeps a framed picture of Hegel on the nightstand in our bedroom. In fact, he even changed his phone's background from a picture of me to this same picture of Hegel. I feel like I am competing with a 200 year old philosopher for my husband's attention.
Recently we got in a huge fight because he was trying to demonstrate an example of the Hegelian concept of the "unity of opposites" (whatever that means) by claiming that right and left hands are opposite but also identical. I told him this is just wrong and that right and left hands are not "identical" in any meaningful sense (chirality is a basic concept in geometry/group theory: left and right hands are not superimposable). He kept putting his hands together and tried to show how they were "identical" and kept failing (because they're not) and then got angry and stormed out of the house. I haven't seen him since (this was about a day ago) and texted him and haven't heard back.
Image 3: What do I do Reddit? Do I just let this go? It's immensely frustrating that my account of my own field is not being taken seriously. He asked me to engage with his work, so I did. But it seems like he won't repay me in kind. He has told me repeatedly that Hegel makes empirical science unnecessary and implied that my work is a waste of time and that I should just be studying German idealism instead and read people like "Fichte" and "Schelling" (who are apparently very popular in Germany but I've never heard of them). Why is it okay for him to belittle my field but I can't offer mild criticism of his?
TL;DR: My husband's academic work is embarrassingly wrong and can't take any criticism.
OCR Output (chars: 4271)
@kravietz
(Couldn't find a language with the name 'really', falling back to default.)
Image 1:
hegelianwife 16 2019-09-21 15:14:05
My husband and I are both academics. We've been
married for 3 years, and been together for 6. He is
an academic philosopher and I am a physicist. He
has recently expressed displeasure that I've never
seriously engaged with his work. Now, I've read a bit
of the classics of philosophy, but my husband's
work is more in what I'm told is called the
"continental" tradition. Unfortunately, everything
he's shown me has just seems completely insane.
Here's the problem: his work apparently involves
claims about physics that are just wrong, and wrong
in a very embarrassing way! I'll admit, I'm a terrible
person, but I had never read his thesis before. I tried
reading it and it's riddled with talk about for
instance the necessary relationship between matter
having "extension" and possessing mass. He also
talks about the "shape" of fundamental particles.
This is obviously nonsensical/wrong; electrons have
mass and are point particles (they don't take up
space really). In the thesis and some other papers
he wrote he seems to think of himself as "scientific"
and a "materialist" but his entire idea of what these
words mean is stuck in like, outdated 19th century
ideas about atoms as little billiard balls flying
around in space. I've gently tried to help him and
explain how he might start to engage seriously with
contemporary physics (he has never read a book on
the subject and is by his own admission "bad at
math’), but he just gets angry with me and explains
that Hegel's system is presuppositional and the
basis for all possible rational thought so there is no
need at all to read other texts in the first place (I
have no idea what this means). He will throw out
terms like "speculative propositions" but when I ask
him to explain what this means or give me
examples he just starts giving me more inscrutable
jargon that makes no sense. On top of that, he will
repeatedly say German phrases or terms that he
uses (and pronounces) incorrectly (1 am a native
speaker) or nonsensically. He claims to understand
the language (he doesn't) and tells me that Hegel
can only be understood "in the original German" but
he clearly can't read the language and when I've tried
to read the original texts they make even less sense.
Image 2:
On top of this, his obsession with Hegel himself has
reached the point of creepiness. At one point he
literally told me that all other work either agrees with
Hegel so is redundant, or disagrees with Hegel and
is wrong. He keeps a framed picture of Hegel on the
nightstand in our bedroom. In fact, he even changed
his phone's background from a picture of me to this
same picture of Hegel. I feel like I am competing
with a 200 year old philosopher for my husband's
attention.
Recently we got in a huge fight because he was
trying to demonstrate an example of the Hegelian
concept of the "unity of opposites" (whatever that
means) by claiming that right and left hands are
opposite but also identical. I told him this is just
wrong and that right and left hands are not
"identical" in any meaningful sense (chirality is a
basic concept in geometry/group theory: left and
right hands are not superimposable). He kept
putting his hands together and tried to show how
they were "identical" and kept failing (because
they're not) and then got angry and stormed out of
the house. I haven't seen him since (this was about
a day ago) and texted him and haven't heard back.
Image 3:
What do I do Reddit? Do I just let this go? It's
immensely frustrating that my account of my own
field is not being taken seriously. He asked me to
engage with his work, so I did. But it seems like he
won't repay me in kind. He has told me repeatedly
that Hegel makes empirical science unnecessary
and implied that my work is a waste of time and
that I should just be studying German idealism
instead and read people like "Fichte" and "Schelling"
(who are apparently very popular in Germany but I've
never heard of them). Why is it okay for him to
belittle my field but I can't offer mild criticism of
his?
TL;DR: My husband's academic work is
embarrassingly wrong and can't take any criticism.