The vacuity of postmodernist methodology

Abstract

Many of the philosophical doctrines purveyed by postmodernists have been roundly refuted, yet people continue to be taken in by the dishonest devices used in proselytizing for postmodernism. I exhibit, name, and analyze five favorite rhetorical manoeuvres: Troll’s truisms, Motte and Bailey doctrines, equivocating fulcra, the postmodernist fox trot, and rankly relativising fields. Anyone familiar with postmodernist writing will recognize their pervasive hold on the dialectic of postmodernism and come to judge that dialectic as it ought to be judged.