Report of the Article: ‘A Physicist Experiment With Cultural Studies’ Autor: Alan D. Sokal Professor of Physics at New Y

1. Report of the Article:‘A Physicist Experiment With Cultural Studies’Autor: Alan D. SokalProfessor of Physics atNew York University Hansen Patricia María hansen@particle.kth.se

2. Why this experiment? Vast sectors of the humanities and the social sciences seem to have adopted a philosophy that it is call, ‘postmodernism’.To respond to this phenomenon,and test the prevailing intellectual standards, Sokal decided to try an experiment.

3. Order and rationality. The knowledge produced by science is ‘truth’ and eternal. Reason is the ultimate judge of what is true, and therefore what is right, and what is good. Knowledge, was good for its own sake; one gain knowledge, via education, in order to be knowledgeable in general, to become an educated person. Modernism

4. Knowledge is characterised by its utility, you learn things, not to know them, but to use that knowledge. Typical question: What will I do with my degree????? Anything which is not able to be translated into a form recognisable and storable by a computer will cease to be knowledge. The opposite of ‘knowledge’ is not ‘ignorance’ is ‘noise’ Rejection of the rationalist tradition of the Modernism. It doesn’t exist ‘absolute truth’ and ‘objective reality. It is full of symbolism and representation. Theoretical discourses disconnected from any empirical test. Science is taken as nothing more than a narration. Postmodernism

5. What are the characteristics of ‘postmodernism’ writings? • Use scientific (or pseudo-scientific) terminology without bothering much about what the words actually mean. • Importing concepts from the natural sciences into humanities or social sciences without giving the slightest conceptual or empirical justification. • The goal is, to impress and, above all, to intimidate the non-scientist reader. • Manipulating phrases and sentences that are,in fact, meaningless.

6. So Alan D. Sokal wrote an article making a parody of post-modern style, entitle: Transgressing the Boundaries: `Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity’

7. Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies publishthis article liberally salted with nonsense if: • it sound good • it flattered the editors’ ideological preconceptions?

8. The answer, was Yes!!!!

9. The article was accepted andpublished. Worse, it was published in a special issue of Social Text devoted to rebutting the criticisms levelled against ‘postmodernism’.

10. Content of the articleHe employ scientific and mathematical concepts in ways that few scientists or mathematicians could possibly take seriously. • He asset that Lacan’s psychoanalytic speculation have been confirmed by recent work in quantum field theory. • He propose that the axiom of equality in mathematical set theory is somehow analogous to the homonymous concept in feminist politics. • He claim that quantum gravity has profound political implications. • In the article one finds only citations of authority, plays on words and strained analogies.

11. Evidently the editors of Social Text felt comfortable publishing an article on quantum physics without bothering to consult anyone knowledgeable in the subject.

12. After this experiment:Many researchers in the humanities and social sciences wrote to Sokal, to thank him for what he had done and to express their own rejection of the postmodernist and relativist tendencies dominating large parts of their disciplines.One student felt that the money he had earned finances his studies had been spent on the clothes of an emperor who, as in the fable was naked.

13. Questioning the Principle of Authority • On purpose, the author makes abundant quotations from important academics to justify many of his claims. • Was the article published simply because the author is a renowned physicist?

14. Conclusions • Whether or not Sokal proved his point, he opened the door to a really important debate about how academics conduct their business.