Exact science’s faith that things resemble themselves courts pataphysics

Evidence

Viewed at this angle, even the exact sciences come dangerously close to pataphysics. Because they depend in some way on the hologram and on the objectivist whim of the deconstruction and exact reconstruction of the world (in its smallest terms) founded on a tenacious and naive faith in a pact of the similitude of things to themselves. The real, the real object is supposed to be equal to itself, it is supposed to resemble itself like a face in a mirror - and this virtual similitude is in effect the only definition of the real - and any attempt, including the holographic one, that rests on it, will inevitably miss its object, because it does not take its shadow into account (precisely the reason why it does not resemble itself) - this hidden face where the object crumbles, its secret. The holographic attempt literally jumps over its shadow, and plunges into transparency, to lose itself there. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 361

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the real as a pact of self-similitude, and introduces the object’s ‘shadow’ that escapes exact reconstruction.
• XREF: Baudrillard’s critique of the mirror-of-self-identity dovetails with Derrida and poststructuralist critiques of presence; also resonates with the reading list’s concern for ‘what cannot be represented.’ — connects to: Scientific rationalism shades into the very faith it claims to dismiss; Perowne’s scientific rationalism is itself a form of faith — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 105; Denying metaphysics in favor of science is itself a metaphysical position — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 294 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Scientific rationalism shades into the very faith it claims to dismiss #corroborates (0.92)
• Denying metaphysics in favor of science is itself a metaphysical position #corroborates (0.85) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 294
• Perowne’s scientific rationalism is itself a form of faith #corroborates (0.82) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 105