Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture by Alan Sokal (PDF)

Description

In 1996, Alan Sokal, a Professor of Physics at New York University, wrote a paper for the cultural-studies journal Social Text, entitled ‘Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity’. It was reviewed, accepted and published. Sokal immediately confessed that the whole article was a hoax – a cunningly worded paper designed to expose and parody the style of extreme postmodernist criticism of science. The storybecame front-page news around the world and triggered fierce and wide-ranging controversy.Sokal is one of the most powerful voices in the continuing debate about the status of evidence-based knowledge. In Beyond the Hoax he turns his attention to a new set of targets – pseudo-science, religion, and misinformation in public life. ‘Whether my targets are the postmodernists of the left, the fundamentalists of the right, or the muddle-headed of all political and apolitical stripes, the bottom line is that clear thinking, combined with a respect for evidence, are of the utmostimportance to the survival of the human race in the twenty-first century.’ The book also includes a hugely illuminating annotated text of the Hoax itself, and a reflection on the furore it provoked.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The hoax that Alan Sokal was involved in hurt a lot of academic egos, and the post-modernists who were his victims have spent 25 years behaving like angry hornets whose nests have been disturbed. Knowing only the barest details, I was quick to take the side of the hoaxer on the basis that pomposity should be pricked purely on principle. So I ordered this book expecting to get in on the joke. Instead I got out of my depth. Alan Sokal is a rarefied intellectual with a mind that holds the scientific method and epistemology as articles of faith. It took me many hours to train my mind to complete the reading of a sentence without admitting that I didn’t understand it. Eventually I managed whole paragraphs and then whole pages. After six months I began showing off to myself and reading whole chapters in a single session. I have now finished the book and, although I am unable to remember anything in detail, I do believe that it has delayed the onset of Alzheimer’s. Alan Sokal is a very clever man with a great sense of humor. Give it a try.

⭐A few years back, I read (and greatly enjoyed) Sokal’s “Fashionable Nonsense”. “Beyond the Hoax”, which includes the full annotated text of his Social Text parody, I also greatly enjoyed — for the most part. It’s good to know Sokal has been keeping busy vigil all these years, penning devastating critiques of addle-brained thinking/writing where he finds it. That his critiques are, off and on, quite funny as well only added to my reading pleasure. Of course, what’s at issue in Sokal’s books, as Sokal makes clear, is far more than simply shoddy scholarship (in which only a handful of scholars are liable to take interest), but rather the profoundly negative social, economic, and political consequences that epistemological incompetence (my formulation, not Sokal’s) has, does, and can give rise to. Quite so. Sokal is to be commended for taking time from his scientific work to cogitate and educate on matters of such grave public importance. For someone who is, as he repeatedly acknowledges, neither a professional philosopher of science nor a professional historian, Sokal is, as the essays in this collection make clear, an acutely insightful ‘amateur’. Beyond the Hoax is a terrific book. Less one star on account of a certain measure of repetitiveness over the span of the book, which made the book a bit more laborious a read than it could have been (had the author made some different editorial decisions). It’s a small quibble, though; don’t let it dissuade you.

⭐Great read great spoof on sanctimonious postmodern types.

⭐It should surprise no one to learn that the intellectual system in common use, like the banking and the politics and the business, is full of dishonest dealings by persons hoping to get ahead regardless of whether their work contributes to a better world or not. Thus philosophers are not ethical, professors would rather cover their asses than admit what they don’t know, and scientists who hit their limit start making stuff up in order to look good. Alan Sokal set out to prove the emperor has no clothes by submitting an article in a cultural-studies journal that was published to high praise, then coming back to point out that it was rubbish and a hoax. He goes on here to pursue the web of nonsense that makes up so much mushy criticism, arguing for evidence-based processes. Formerly known as empiricism, the more accessible term ‘evidence-based’ refers to ways of learning, thinking, and proceeding that ditch putting theory first and trying to make the results line up with the prediction, no matter how much you have to adjust the facts. Instead, empirical investigation and practice puts facts first, demanding we learn to live with theoretical uncertainty until such time as we know enough to assemble hypotheses into theories that stand on real experience.

⭐I love this book, I bought it by accident and it changed my life. So thought provoking with a collection of different articles and responses from many different sources. All the more relevant today.

⭐One of the most absolutely brilliant books ever written- I don’t know anything at all about quantum physics, so I don’t understand the physics references, but you can still understand most of this book without any knowledge of quantum physics. I’m also not familiar with the French academics whom he satirized in his 1996 essay- I am however VERY familiar with people who are entirely full of themselves, and who have made entire careers based on the art of long winded and verbose ways to say absolutely nothing at all, with zero (0) relevance to anything in today’s world or to any other world for that matter…. Alan Sokal is an absolute genius…

⭐This book starts with explaining Sokal’s academic “hoax,” but it only uses this as a springboard to discuss the wider issues of scientific realism. It is “beyond” the hoax.There is a lot of good and clear thinking in this book. But there is one criticism that I have of the book. The book is a collection of essays he has written on the topic. While the essays somewhat form a coherent book, it is still very noticeable that they are different essays supposed to be read independently. Because of this fact, a lot of what he says is repeated, almost word for word, in several of the essays. This can get a little repetitious and it would be better if everything was rewritten for the purpose of a book which progresses and forms a whole.The book has an incredible amount of footnotes, a fact that I personally find OK. Just a heads-up for anyone who dislikes footnotes. It’s actually quite humorous just how many footnotes there are sometimes.This book is a good read and definitely recommended for anyone who wishes to understand the “Science Wars.”

⭐PC-infested people beware! You won’t be the same person after reading this book and it won’t self-destroy. A superior read and not putdownable.

⭐se avete letto il libro di Bricmont e Sokal dal titolo “fashonable nonsense”, o “impostures intellectuelles”,e lo avete trovato interessante, leggete anche questo, (lettura concettuosa e difficile, ricca di riferimenti).

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⭐In der “normalen” Buchversion ist im Abschnitt I.1 (“The parody, annotated”) der ursprüngliche TEXT von “Transgressing the boundaries…” ) auf den jeweils rechten Seiten wiedergegeben, die ANMERKUNGEN hierzu auf den jeweils linken Seiten.Da das ebook das “normalen” Buches nicht 1 zu 1 darstellt (vermutlich auch: darstellen kann), führt dies dazu, dass im ebook ein völlig unüberschaubarer Mischmasch zwischen TEXT und ANMERKUNGEN wiedergegeben wird. Es ist daher unmöglich allein an Hand des ebooks die ANMERKUNGEN den jeweiligen TEXT-stellen zuzuordnen.Offensichtlich redigiert niemand den Mist den man sich hier zu verkaufen traut.

⭐

⭐Is good

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