[VodkaHaze]

There's a difference between the positive (this thing is like that) and the normative (this should be like that).

Positive questions are subject to empiricism, period. There is no cop out saying a positive statement is not testable. Even prohibitively difficult empirical questions (like in macroeconomics, psychology, biology, etc.) Are subject to testing.

Normative questions can be discussed without empiricism, correct, but you can't use this to infer on how things are. So if you want to say there should be no objective reality,fine. If you say that factual statements are a tool of oppression because there is no objective reality, you stepped into the testable.

Cultural criticism threads this line back and forth in a much too cavalier fashion. If you make a statement about how culture is, you've made a testable statement. There are plenty of ways to test cultural expectations, ask empirical psychologists and sociologists

[CalChris]

> There's a difference between the positive (this thing is like that) and the normative (this should be like that).

Yes and then there's skepticism (doubt as to the truth of something) which is essentially what Postmodernism is.