literature

A letter to those who love obscurity

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Literature Text

Dear Continental Philosophers and those scholars not in the hard sciences who think using fancy, whimsical lingo makings your thinking more precise:

The florid and impenetrable language of continental philosophy in large part stems from the influence of the specific legacy of philosophical phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, et al.). Phenomenology gained ascendancy within philosophical circles in the 20th century. Its influence has since diffusely spread throughout the humanities and even soft sciences (trickling down even into popular intellectual discourses outside the academy). Ironically, the point of phenomenology was to push back against a competing philosophical discourse that had disconnected language from the lived reality of human experience. So, the original words like 'Da(-)sein' and 'Grund' were not meant to mystify but to point to very basic, pre-conscious feelings common to all humans in pretty basic German terms. Because you (or most of you) are not German and because phenomenology got into the hands of the French and then the Americans, this all went horribly wrong. And now you invent twice, thrice, ten times as many terms as you come up with truly thought through ideas (should I blame this on the consumer market forces which value quantity over quality?). Worse, you alienate the very people whose experiences you are trying to give credence and consideration to. I appreciate that this linguistic freedom has been appropriated by gender, race, post-colonial and queer studies in such a way that we can valorize new voices by making new choices about which words and categories have authority. But I don't appreciate the pseudo-elitism behind so much of this lingo when it becomes ensconced in the academia as something 'bearing authority in itself.' Please try, try, to see the forest for the trees when you use fancy lingo. Otherwise you bite the hand that feeds you.

Love,
A renegade scholar.
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