Fashionable Nonsense by Alan Sokal

Fashionable Nonsense by Alan Sokal

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.

Jean Bricmont is a theoretical physicist and professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. He has helped to make the political writings of Noam Chomsky known in France after years of blackout. He is the coauthor, with Alan Sokal, of Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science.Julie Franck is assistant professor at the Laboratory of Experimental Psycholinguistics, University of Geneva. Her research concerns syntax in adults and children.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780312204075
ISBN 10	0312204078
Title	Fashionable Nonsense
Author	Alan Sokal
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	St Martin's Press
Year published	1999-10-29
Number of pages	300
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.