But I think that postmodernism, broadly speaking, also hedges well against ideological bias.
Actually, one of my major objections to the modern intellectual currents that are commonly called “postmodernist” is their bias—part ideological, part fashion-induced—in choosing which authors to consider as classics and standard sources of citations and inspiration. We keep seeing an endless stream of discussions using concepts from Marx, Freud, and others whose work has long been shown to be largely bunk (even if later authors have salvaged some of these concepts by reinterpretation), while on the other hand, there are many authors who have made important points about issues that postmodernists are directly concerned with, but I can hardly imagine them getting cited and discussed.
To take an example I find very interesting, one topic that has long fascinated me is political and ideological language and its meanings that reach beyond what’s being plainly said, and even beyond any conscious deceit and manipulation. (The link with the Overcoming Bias signaling leitmotifs is pretty clear here, and obviously the topic is of direct concern for all sorts of social and critical theorists—it’s falls squarely under the concept of “epistemological differences when dealing with communications.”) Yet when it comest to the best writings on the subject I’ve seen, they’re completely off the radar for postmodern academics, either because of ideological differences or otherwise because dropping their names won’t earn any prestige points.
Actually, one of my major objections to the modern intellectual currents that are commonly called “postmodernist” is their bias—part ideological, part fashion-induced—in choosing which authors to consider as classics and standard sources of citations and inspiration. We keep seeing an endless stream of discussions using concepts from Marx, Freud, and others whose work has long been shown to be largely bunk (even if later authors have salvaged some of these concepts by reinterpretation), while on the other hand, there are many authors who have made important points about issues that postmodernists are directly concerned with, but I can hardly imagine them getting cited and discussed.
To take an example I find very interesting, one topic that has long fascinated me is political and ideological language and its meanings that reach beyond what’s being plainly said, and even beyond any conscious deceit and manipulation. (The link with the Overcoming Bias signaling leitmotifs is pretty clear here, and obviously the topic is of direct concern for all sorts of social and critical theorists—it’s falls squarely under the concept of “epistemological differences when dealing with communications.”) Yet when it comest to the best writings on the subject I’ve seen, they’re completely off the radar for postmodern academics, either because of ideological differences or otherwise because dropping their names won’t earn any prestige points.