العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolALAN SOKAL
'Alan David Sokal' (born 1955) is a professor of physics and faculty member of the mathematics department at New York University. In January 2006, he was appointed as the Chair of Statistical Mechanics & Combinatorics at University College London.
Advised by Arthur Wightman, he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1981. In an often-cited aspect of his personal history, Sokal taught mathematics at the National University of Nicaragua in the summers of 1986-1988, during the rule of the Sandinistas.
Sokal is best known to the general public for the Sokal Affair of 1996. Curious to see whether the then-non-peer-reviewed postmodern cultural studies journal ''Social Text'' (published by Duke University Press) would publish a submission which "flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions", Sokal submitted for publication a grand-sounding but nonsensical paper entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity". [1]
The journal did publish it, and Sokal then revealed the hoax in the journal ''Lingua Franca'' [2], arguing that the left and social science would be better served by intellectual underpinnings based on reason. He replied to leftist and postmodernist criticism of the deception by saying that his motivation had been to "defend the Left from a trendy segment of itself."
The affair, together with Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt's book ''Higher Superstition'', can be considered to be the beginnings of the so-called Science wars.
Sokal followed up by co-authoring the book ''Impostures Intellectuelles'' with Jean Bricmont in 1997 (published in English, a year later, as ''Fashionable Nonsense''). The book accuses other academics of using scientific and mathematical terms incorrectly and criticizes proponents of the strong program for denying the value of truth. The book had mixed reviews, with some lauding the effort, some more reserved, and others pointing out alleged inconsistencies and criticizing the authors for ignorance of the fields under attack and taking passages out of context.
In physics, Sokal's research interests include statistical mechanics, quantum field theory, mathematical physics, and computational physics.
★ But why did I do it? I confess that I'm an unabashed Old Leftist who never quite understood how deconstruction was supposed to help the working class. And I'm a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them.
★ Anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social conventions is invited to try transgressing those conventions from the windows of my apartment. (I live on the twenty-first floor.)
★ Cargo cult science
1. Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity, Sokal A., , , Social Text, 1996
2. A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies, Sokal A., , , Lingua Franca, 1996
★
★ University College London
★ New York University
★ "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity"
★ Alan Sokal on the Social Text Affair
| Contents |
| Academic career |
| Sokal Affair |
| Thought |
| Quotes |
| See also |
| References |
| External links |
Academic career
Advised by Arthur Wightman, he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1981. In an often-cited aspect of his personal history, Sokal taught mathematics at the National University of Nicaragua in the summers of 1986-1988, during the rule of the Sandinistas.
Sokal Affair
Sokal is best known to the general public for the Sokal Affair of 1996. Curious to see whether the then-non-peer-reviewed postmodern cultural studies journal ''Social Text'' (published by Duke University Press) would publish a submission which "flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions", Sokal submitted for publication a grand-sounding but nonsensical paper entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity". [1]
The journal did publish it, and Sokal then revealed the hoax in the journal ''Lingua Franca'' [2], arguing that the left and social science would be better served by intellectual underpinnings based on reason. He replied to leftist and postmodernist criticism of the deception by saying that his motivation had been to "defend the Left from a trendy segment of itself."
The affair, together with Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt's book ''Higher Superstition'', can be considered to be the beginnings of the so-called Science wars.
Thought
Sokal followed up by co-authoring the book ''Impostures Intellectuelles'' with Jean Bricmont in 1997 (published in English, a year later, as ''Fashionable Nonsense''). The book accuses other academics of using scientific and mathematical terms incorrectly and criticizes proponents of the strong program for denying the value of truth. The book had mixed reviews, with some lauding the effort, some more reserved, and others pointing out alleged inconsistencies and criticizing the authors for ignorance of the fields under attack and taking passages out of context.
In physics, Sokal's research interests include statistical mechanics, quantum field theory, mathematical physics, and computational physics.
Quotes
★ But why did I do it? I confess that I'm an unabashed Old Leftist who never quite understood how deconstruction was supposed to help the working class. And I'm a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them.
★ Anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social conventions is invited to try transgressing those conventions from the windows of my apartment. (I live on the twenty-first floor.)
See also
★ Cargo cult science
References
1. Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity, Sokal A., , , Social Text, 1996
2. A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies, Sokal A., , , Lingua Franca, 1996
External links
★
★ University College London
★ New York University
★ "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity"
★ Alan Sokal on the Social Text Affair
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
