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Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science
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Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science description
In 1996, an article entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" was published in the cultural studies journal Social Text. Packed with recherché quotations from "postmodern" literary theorists and sociologists of science, and bristling with imposing theorems of mathematical physics, the article addressed the cultural and political implications of the theory of quantum gravity. Later, to the embarrassment of the editors, the author revealed that the essay was a hoax, interweaving absurd pronouncements from eminent intellectuals about mathematics and physics with laudatory--but fatuous--prose. In Fashionable Nonsense, Alan Sokal, the author of the hoax, and Jean Bricmont contend that abuse of science is rampant in postmodernist circles, both in the form of inaccurate and pretentious invocation of scientific and mathematical terminology and in the more insidious form of epistemic relativism. When Sokal and Bricmont expose Jacques Lacan's ignorant misuse of topology, or Julia Kristeva's of set theory, or Luce Irigaray's of fluid mechanics, or Jean Baudrillard's of non-Euclidean geometry, they are on safe ground; it is all too clear that these virtuosi are babbling. Their discussion of epistemic relativism--roughly, the idea that scientific and mathematical theories are mere "narrations" or social constructions--is less convincing, however, in part because epistemic relativism is not as intrinsically silly as, say, Regis Debray's maunderings about Gödel, and in part because the authors' own grasp of the philosophy of science frequently verges on the naive. Nevertheless, Sokal and Bricmont are to be commended for their spirited resistance to postmodernity's failure to appreciate science for what it is. --Glenn Branch |
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Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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A book that debunks and should be read by all math and science people
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In the depth and breadth of my reading, one of the topics that I find infuriating is when a writer cites a mathematical or scientific principle in a manner completely beyond the scope of the principle. When this is done, they are clearly demonstrating their ignorance of the concept and in many cases their inability to mount a solid argument for the point they are trying to make. I have seen the uncertainty inherent in quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem used in ways that would be laughable if the writer was not so serious. I generally feel sorry for the author when such things appear in print, as in some cases it is an oozing sore of failure in what could have been a good book.
Given this backdrop, it is clear that this book would tilt me towards a state of depression. One of the authors (Sokal) is well known for having had a paper accepted by the cultural studies journal "Social Text" that was a nonsensical parody containing scientific absurdities. All he did was adopt the jargon used by others in the social sciences field and use it to surround scientific statements. In this book, the authors print excerpts from some of the more ridiculous writings where people cite mathematical or scientific principles in improper ways.
The tone and content of these writings can be summed up by the following excerpt, written by Luce Irigaray:
"Is E = Mc2 a sexed equation? Perhaps it is. Let us make the hypothesis that it is insofar as it privileges the speed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us. What seems to me to indicate the possibly sexed nature of the equation is not directly its uses by nuclear weapons, rather it is having privileged what goes the fastest . . . "
The idea that one can apply social mores and gender bias to what is a natural law of the universe is so absurd that I am shocked that anyone could utter such a comment with a straight face or even have the courage to make it public. It is also a demonstration of how science must always stay above the emotional fray, for when it drops down into that cauldron; science and the entire human condition suffer.
As the excerpts make clear, there are some people, supposedly educated, who cite mathematical and scientific concepts without really having any idea what they mean. The only hope for mankind is that those who do understand the concepts continue to speak out and demonstrate these colossal failures. Sokal and Bricmont have done the world a great service in compiling this book and it is one that all mathematical and scientific people should read.
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