Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science
Paperback 320 pages English October 29, 1999
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Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science
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In 1996 physicist Alan Sokal published an essay in Social Text--an influential academic journal of cultural studies--touting the deep similarities between quantum gravitational theory and postmodern philosophy. Soon thereafter, the essay was revealed as a brilliant parody, a catalog of nonsense written in the cutting-edge but impenetrable lingo of postmodern theorists. The event sparked a furious debate in academic circles and made the headlines of newspapers in the U.S. and abroad. In Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science, Sokal and his fellow physicist Jean Bricmont expand from where the hoax left off. In a delightfully witty and clear voice, the two thoughtfully and thoroughly dismantle the pseudo-scientific writings of some of the most fashionable French and American intellectuals. More generally, they challenge the widespread notion that scientific theories are mere "narrations" or social constructions.
- Author:
- Alan Sokal
- Publisher:
- Picador
- Publication Date:
- October 29, 1999
- Number of pages:
- 320 pages
- Language:
- English
- Binding:
- Paperback
- ISBN-10:
- 0312204078
- ISBN-13:
- 9780312204075