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Vanderbilt Law Review

Authors

Dennis W. Arrow

First Page

2379

Abstract

Given law-school postmodernism's epistemo/ontology of juvenile antirealist agnosticism, its commitment to Gadamerian and/or Derridean notions of linguistic indeterminacy, its mono- maniacal dedication to centrifugal end-justifies-the-means Lefty politics, its abhorrence of commonly recognized conceptions of neutral principle, its concomitant disrespect for the very notion of truth, and its inextricably intertwined obsession with names and propensity for linguistic doublespeak, Professor Arrow confesses to initially wondering what it might "mean" to take anything uttered by a postmodernist "literally," or at "face value." But undaunted by that 'paradox," Professor Arrow not only takes up Feldman's challenge to "critique postmodernism on its own terms" (by playing a pantomime Spaceball game with Feldman), but also critiques it logically--and (gasp!) pragmatically (not 'pragmatically'". Maintaining the tonal and stylistic "playfulness" to which law-school pomoers profess to aspire (but in no known instance have achieved), Professor Arrow assures the reader that there will be numerous interesting (not "interesting') plot twists along the way. In the process, Professor Arrow also offers speculation about the way in which the postmodernists' ultimate contribution to American law schools is likely to be assessed-but cautions (as is appropriate under the circumstances) that you'll have to find it in a footnote.

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