# obscurantism ![[johannesreuchlin-imaginesphilologorum.jpg|300]] the humanist scholar johannes reuchlin (1455-1522) actively opposed religious obscurantism in the fields of philosophy the terms obscurantism and obscurationism identify and describe the anti-intellectual practices of deliberately presenting information in an abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subject. the two historical and intellectual denotations of obscurantism are: (1) the deliberate restriction of knowledge - opposition to the dissemination of knowledge; and (2) deliberate obscurity - a recondite style of writing characterised by deliberate vagueness in the 18th century enlightenment philosophers applied the term obscurantist to any enemy of intellectual enlightenment and the liberal diffusion of knowledge. in the 19th century in distinguishing the varieties of obscurantism found in metaphysics and theology from the "more subtle" obscurantism of the critical philosophy of immanuel kant and of modern philosophical skepticism friedrich nietzsche said that: "the essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world and darken our idea of existence" # restricting knowledge ![[200px-marquisdecondorcethd.jpg|300]] in the 18th century the marquis de condorcet was a political scientist who correctly perceived obscurantism as a contributing cause of the french revolution in 1789 in restricting education and knowledge to an elite ruling class obscurantism is anti-democratic. its components anti-intellectualism and social elitism exclude the majority of people deemed unworthy of knowing the facts about ir government and the political and economic affairs of ir city-state in 18th century monarchic france as a political scientist the marquis de condorcet documented the aristocracy's obscurantism and indifference to the social problems that provoked the french revolution (1789-1799) which deposed the aristocracy and the monarchy of king louis xvi of france (r. 1774-1792) in the 19th century the mathematician william kingdon clifford who was an early proponent of darwinism worked to eliminate obscurantism in england after hearing clerics - who privately agreed with ir about evolution - publicly denounce evolution as un-christian heresy. moreover in the realm of organised religion obscurantism is a distinct strain of anti-intellectualism that is independent of theologic allegiance by which distinction religious fundamentalism presupposes sincere religious belief in the person whereas censorship is obscurantism that is based upon the elite power-group manipulating the religious faith of the majority of the population of believers # # leo strauss # # political philosophy in the 20th century the american conservative political philosopher leo strauss for whom philosophy and politics intertwined and ir neo-conservative adherents adopted the notion of government by the enlightened few as political strategy. ey noted that intellectuals dating from plato confronted the dilemma of either an informed populace "interfering" with government or whether it were possible for good politicians to be truthful and still govern to maintain a stable society - hence the noble lie necessary in securing public acquiescence. in the city and man (1964) ey discusses the myths in the republic that plato proposes effective governing requires among them the belief that the country (land) ruled by the state belongs to it (despite some having been conquered from others) and that citizenship derives from more than the accident of birth in the city-state. thus in the new yorker magazine article "selective intelligence" seymour hersh observes that strauss endorsed the "noble lie" concept: the myths politicians use in maintaining a cohesive society shadia drury criticised strauss's acceptance of dissembling and deception of the populace as "the peculiar justice of the wise" whereas plato proposed the noble lie as based upon moral good. in criticizing natural right and history (1953) they said that "strauss thinks that the superiority of the ruling philosophers is an intellectual superiority and not a moral one ... is the only interpreter who gives a sinister reading to plato and then celebrates ir" # # esoteric texts leo strauss also was criticised for proposing the notion of "esoteric" meanings to ancient texts obscure knowledge inaccessible to the "ordinary" intellect. in persecution and the art of writing (1952) ey proposes that some philosophers write esoterically to avert persecution by the political or religious authorities and per ir knowledge of maimonides al farabi and plato proposed that an esoteric writing style is proper for the philosophic text. rather than explicitly presenting ir thoughts the philosopher's esoteric writing compels the reader to think independently of the text and so learn. in the phædrus socrates notes that writing does not reply to questions but invites dialogue with the reader thereby minimizing the problems of grasping the written word. strauss noted that one of writing's political dangers is students' too-readily accepting dangerous ideas - as in the trial of socrates wherein the relationship with alcibiades was used to prosecute ir for leo strauss philosophers' texts offered the reader lucid "exoteric" (salutary) and obscure "esoteric" (true) teachings which are concealed to the reader of ordinary intellect; emphasizing that writers often left contradictions and other errors to encourage the reader's more scrupulous (re-)reading of the text. in observing and maintaining the "exoteric - esoteric" dichotomy strauss was accused of obscurantism and for writing esoterically # # bill joy ![[billjoyatworldeconomicforum(davos)-2003-01(cropped).jpg|300]] the computer scientist bill joy proposed controlling the public's access to certain data information and knowledge because the public cannot handle the truth in the article "why the future doesn't need us" (april 2000) the computer scientist bill joy then chief scientist at sun microsystems in the sub-title of the article proposed that: "our most powerful twenty-first-century technologies - robotics genetic engineering and nanotech - are threatening to make humans an endangered species" and said that > the experiences of the atomic scientists clearly show the need to take personal responsibility the danger that things will move too fast and the way in which a process can take on a life of its own. we can as they did create insurmountable problems in almost no time flat. we must do more thinking up front if we are not to be similarly surprised and shocked by the consequences of our inventions critics readily noted the obscurantism in joy's elitist proposal for limiting the dissemination of "certain knowledge" in order to preserve society. a year later in the science and technology policy yearbook 2001 the american association for the advancement of science answered joy's propositions with the article "a response to bill joy and the doom-and-gloom technofuturists" wherein the computer scientists john seely brown and paul duguid said that joy's proposal was a form of technological tunnel vision and that the technologically derived problems are infeasible for disregarding the influence of non-scientists upon such societal problems # appeal to emotion ![[friedrichhayekportrait.jpg|300]] the economist friedrich august von hayek in the essay "why i am not a conservative" (1960) the economist friedrich von hayek said that political conservatism is ideologically unrealistic because of the conservative person's inability to adapt to changing human realities and refusal to offer a positive political program that benefits everyone in a society. in that context hayek used the term obscurantism differently to denote and describe the denial of the empirical truth of scientific theory because of the disagreeable moral consequences that might arise from acceptance of fact # deliberate obscurity the second sense of obscurantism denotes making knowledge abstruse that is difficult to grasp. in the 19th and 20th centuries obscurantism became a polemical term for accusing an author of deliberately writing obscurely in order to hide ir or ir intellectual vacuousness. philosophers who are neither empiricists nor positivists often are considered obscurantists when describing the abstract concepts of ir disciplines. for philosophic reasons such authors might modify or reject verifiability falsifiability and logical non-contradiction. from that perspective obscure (clouded vague abstruse) writing does not necessarily indicate that the writer has a poor grasp of the subject because unintelligible writing sometimes is purposeful and philosophically considered # # aristotle ![[aristotlealtempsinv8575.jpg|300]] aristotle aristotle divided ir own works into two classifications: "exoteric" and "esoteric." most scholars have understood this as a distinction of intended audience where exoteric works were written for the public and the esoteric works were more technical works intended for use within the lyceum. modern scholars commonly assume these latter to be aristotle's own (unpolished) lecture notes or in some cases possible notes by ir students. however the 5th-century neoplatonist ammonius hermiae writes that aristotle's writing style is deliberately obscurantist so that "good people may for that reason stretch ir mind even more whereas empty minds that are lost through carelessness will be put to flight by the obscurity when they encounter sentences like these" in contemporary discussions of virtue ethics aristotle's nicomachean ethics (the ethics) stands accused of ethical obscurantism because of the technical philosophic language and writing style and ir purpose being the education of a cultured governing elite # # kant immanuel kant employed technical terms that were not commonly understood by the layman. arthur schopenhauer contended that post-kantian philosophers such as johann gottlieb fichte friedrich wilhelm joseph schelling and georg wilhelm friedrich hegel deliberately imitated the abstruse style of writing practiced by kant # # hegel ![[g.w.f.hegel(bysichling-aftersebbers).jpg|300]] g. w. f. hegel g. w. f. hegel's philosophy and the philosophies of those ey influenced especially karl marx have been accused of obscurantism. analytic and positivistic philosophers such as a. j. ayer bertrand russell and the critical-rationalist karl popper accused hegel and hegelianism of being obscure. about hegel's philosophy schopenhauer wrote that it is "a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers stifling all real thinking and by the most outrageous misuse of language putting in its place the hollowest most senseless thoughtless and as is confirmed by its success most stupefying verbiage" nevertheless biographer terry pinkard notes: "hegel has refused to go away even in analytic philosophy itself." hegel was aware of ir perceived obscurantism and perceived it as part of philosophical thinking: to accept and transcend the limitations of quotidian (everyday) thought and its concepts. in the essay "who thinks abstractly?" ey said that it is not the philosopher who thinks abstractly but the layman who uses concepts as givens that are immutable without context. it is the philosopher who thinks concretely because ey transcends the limits of quotidian concepts in order to understand ir broader context. this makes philosophical thought and language appear obscure esoteric and mysterious to the layman # # marx ![[marx4.jpg|300]] karl marx in 1861 in ir early works karl marx criticised german and french philosophy especially german idealism for its traditions of german irrationalism and ideologically motivated obscurantism. later thinkers whom ey influenced such as the philosopher györgy lukács and social theorist jürgen habermas followed with similar arguments of ir own. however philosophers such as karl popper and friedrich hayek in turn criticised marx and marxist philosophy as obscurantist (however see above for hayek's particular interpretation of the term) # # heidegger martin heidegger and those influenced by ir such as jacques derrida and emmanuel levinas have been labeled obscurantists by critics from analytic philosophy and the frankfurt school of critical theory. of heidegger bertrand russell wrote: "ir philosophy is extremely obscure. one cannot help suspecting that language is here running riot. an interesting point in ir speculations is the insistence that nothingness is something positive. as with much else in existentialism this is a psychological observation made to pass for logic." that is russell's complete entry on heidegger and it expresses the sentiments of many 20th-century analytic philosophers concerning heidegger # # derrida in ir obituaries "jacques derrida abstruse theorist dies at 74" (10 october 2004) and "obituary of jacques derrida french intellectual" (21 october 2004) the new york times newspaper and the economist magazine described derrida as a deliberately obscure philosopher in contingency irony and solidarity (1989) richard rorty proposed that in the post card: from socrates to freud and beyond (1978) jacques derrida purposefully used undefinable words (eg differance) and used defined words in contexts so diverse that they render the words unintelligible hence the reader is unable to establish a context for ir literary self. in that way the philosopher derrida escapes metaphysical accounts of ir work. since the work ostensibly contains no metaphysics derrida has consequently escaped metaphysics derrida's philosophic work is especially controversial among american and british academics as when the university of cambridge awarded ir an honorary doctorate despite opposition from among the cambridge philosophy faculty and analytical philosophers worldwide. in opposing the decision philosophers including barry smith w. v. o. quine david armstrong ruth barcan marcus rene thom and twelve others published a letter of protestation in the times of london arguing that "ir works employ a written style that defies comprehension ... academic status based on what seems to us to be little more than semi-intelligible attacks upon the values of reason truth and scholarship is not we submit sufficient grounds for the awarding of an honorary degree in a distinguished university" in the new york review of books article "an exchange on deconstruction" (february 1984) john searle comments on deconstruction: "anyone who reads deconstructive texts with an open mind is likely to be struck by the same phenomena that initially surprised me: the low level of philosophical argumentation the deliberate obscurantism of the prose the wildly exaggerated claims and the constant striving to give the appearance of profundity by making claims that seem paradoxical but under analysis often turn out to be silly or trivial" # # lacan jacques lacan was an intellectual who defended obscurantism to a degree. to ir students' complaint about the deliberate obscurity of ir lectures ey replied: "the less you understand the better you listen." in the 1973 seminar encore ey said that ir ecrits (writings) were not to be understood but would effect a meaning in the reader like that induced by mystical texts. the obscurity is not in ir writing style but in the repeated allusions to hegel derived from alexandre kojève's lectures on hegel and similar theoretic divergences # # sokal affair the sokal affair (1996) was a publishing hoax that the professor of physics alan sokal perpetrated on the editors and readers of social text an academic journal of post-modern cultural studies that was not then a peer-reviewed publication. in 1996 as an experiment testing editorial integrity (fact-checking verification peer review etc.) sokal submitted "transgressing the boundaries: towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity" a pseudoscientific article proposing that physical reality is a social construct in order to learn whether social text would "publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if: (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions." sokal's bluffy article was published in the spring/summer 1996 issue of social text which was dedicated to the science wars about the conceptual validity of scientific objectivity and the nature of scientific theory among scientific realists and post-modem critics in american universities sokal's reason for publication of a false article was that postmodernist critics questioned the objectivity of science by criticising the scientific method and the nature of knowledge usually in the disciplines of cultural studies cultural anthropology feminist studies comparative literature media studies and science and technology studies. whereas the scientific realists countered that objective scientific knowledge exists riposting that postmodernist critics almost knew nothing of the science they criticised. in the event editorial deference to "academic authority" (the author-professor) prompted the editors of social text not to fact-check sokal's manuscript by submitting it to peer review by a scientist concerning the lack of editorial integrity shown by the publication of ir bluffy article in social text magazine sokal addressed the matter in the may 1996 edition of the lingua franca journal in the article "a physicist experiments with cultural studies" in which ey revealed that ir transformative hermeneutics article was a parody submitted "to test the prevailing intellectual standards" and concluded that as an academic publication social text ignored the requisite intellectual rigor of verification and "felt comfortable publishing an article on quantum physics without bothering to consult anyone knowledgeable in the subject" moreover as a public intellectual sokal said that ir hoax was an action protesting against the contemporary tendency towards obscurantism - abstruse esoteric and vague writing in the social sciences > in short my concern over the spread of subjectivist thinking is both intellectual and political. intellectually the problem with such doctrines is that they are false (when not simply meaningless.) there is a real world; its properties are not merely social constructions; facts and evidence do matter. what sane person would contend otherwise? and yet much contemporary academic theorizing consists precisely of attempts to blur these obvious truths - the utter absurdity of it all being concealed through obscure and pretentious language moreover independent of the hoax as a pseudoscientific opus the article "transgressing the boundaries: towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity" is described as an exemplar "pastiche of left-wing cant fawning references grandiose quotations and outright nonsense centered on the claim that physical reality is merely a social construct." similarly to whataboutism obscurantism is used by elevating the readers prejudices to a grandiose value-laden assumption belief principle(s) or pseudoscience that does not deconstruct opposing claims and is stalling a priori and/or asserting confusing jargon or technical speak to describe events which may deny the real world existence of physical properties # see also **+** anti-intellectualism **+** cover-up **+** cult **+** disinformation **+** doublespeak **+** dumbing down **+** fundamentalism **+** greenspeak **+** paternalism **+** paywall **+** perception management **+** philosopher king **+** politicisation of science **+** pseudophilosophy **+** pseudointellectual **+** psychological manipulation **+** positivism **+** scientism **+** whataboutism # notes 1. thus an obscurantist is someone who actively opposes enlightenment and consequent social reform // republic of bob