While Sokal's well-publicized nuking of postmodernist BS is a laudable exercise, it by no means establishes the irrelevancy of the traditional questions addressed by the humanities. Saying that science and technology exist in a world of "utility" apart and immune from the fuzzy-edged questions addressed by philosophy and the arts is just as dangerous as the postmodernist subjectivist melt-down.
Science and technology can tell you the "is", but the scientific method, standing alone, cannot tell you the "ought". Ultimately, science and technology will provide us with a complete list of what we CAN do, but we'll still have to face the question of what we OUGHT to do.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"Civilization is protest against nature;
progress requires us to take control of evolution."
Thomas Huxley