Arguments in the Guardian letters page
Apr. 23rd, 2006 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bouteillebleuhttp://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,1751402,00.html
Tuesday April 11, 2006 - Dr Annie Seaton believes that "Derrida, Bataille, Baudrillard, Lacan..." are among the best French thinkers. (Recall that Lacan is the man who implied that the square root of minus one was equal to his penis.)
She also says "My apologies to Oxbridge, where conceptual advances seem less important than old school ties and reinforcing class distinctions".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1751860,00.html
Wednesday April 12, 2006 - James Syme replies that Oxbridge is better than France in the sciences, and Cambridge alone has 56 Nobel Prize winners to its name compared to France's 11. Alas, he fails to mention that Trinity College alone also has more Nobel Prize winners than France.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,1755146,00.html
Monday April 17, 2006 - Six more people respond to Seaton's letter. Prof Raymond points out that French universities have moved on from the worst of the postmodernist nonsense that Harvard is still fascinated by.
Seaton herself replies to Syme's letter, with the claim that "there is a reason why it is the sciences - and not difficult modernist fiction or books about the philosophy of freedom - which can still flourish in totalitarian societies". She then fails to mention what this reason is.
Tuesday April 11, 2006 - Dr Annie Seaton believes that "Derrida, Bataille, Baudrillard, Lacan..." are among the best French thinkers. (Recall that Lacan is the man who implied that the square root of minus one was equal to his penis.)
She also says "My apologies to Oxbridge, where conceptual advances seem less important than old school ties and reinforcing class distinctions".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1751860,00.html
Wednesday April 12, 2006 - James Syme replies that Oxbridge is better than France in the sciences, and Cambridge alone has 56 Nobel Prize winners to its name compared to France's 11. Alas, he fails to mention that Trinity College alone also has more Nobel Prize winners than France.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/comment/story/0,,1755146,00.html
Monday April 17, 2006 - Six more people respond to Seaton's letter. Prof Raymond points out that French universities have moved on from the worst of the postmodernist nonsense that Harvard is still fascinated by.
Seaton herself replies to Syme's letter, with the claim that "there is a reason why it is the sciences - and not difficult modernist fiction or books about the philosophy of freedom - which can still flourish in totalitarian societies". She then fails to mention what this reason is.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-23 08:29 pm (UTC)Of course I am feeling marginally vitriolic today anyway and I’m sure there are some sensible philosophers out there who really do contribute intelligent debate, though I expect those would be the ones who don’t go round shouting about how subversive they are and instead just get the job done.
I think the only piece of trivia that I can think of off hand has to be that business at Reading where it’s either the Chemistry department or the Biochemistry one that has a staircase that leads to a blank wall because the two departments were meant to be joined but they got into a fight beforehand so their buildings were instead build at opposite ends of the campus.