Book Description
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 thinking. Soon
thereafter, the essay was revealed to be a brilliant parody,
a catalog of nonsense written in erudite but impenetrable
lingo. The event sparked a furious debate in academic circles
and across many disciplines--psychology, sociology, feminist
studies, history, literature, mathematics, and the hard
sciences--about the use and abuse of scientific theories in
fields outside the scope of science.
Now Sokal and fellow physicist Jean Bricmont expand from
where the hoax left off. In a witty and closely reasoned
argument, the authors thoroughly document the misuse of
scientific concepts in the writings of some of the most
fashionable contemporary intellectual icons. From Jacques
Lacan and Julia Kristeva to Luce Irigaray and Jean
Baudrillard, the authors demonstrate the errors made by some
postmodernists in their attempts to use science to illustrate
and support their arguments. More generally, Sokal and
Bricmont challenge the notion--held in some form by many
thinkers in a range of academic fields--that scientific
theories are mere "narratives" or social
constructions.
At once provocative and measured, Fashionable Nonsense
explores the crucial question of what science is and is not,
and suggests both the abilities and the limits of science to
describe the conditions of existence.
