Intellectual Impostures [review]
 Author: Alan Sokal |
A point of interest: I was given this book as an antidote against my incumbent postmodernism, and I love and agree with a significant portion of the book, but am still what you might call a postmodernist, albeit a "soft" one :) It's written by Alan Sokal, a professor made scandalously infamous by the publication of his academic article that was later revealed to be a complete mockery of intellectual tradition, comprising, as it did, some forty pages of what Sokal called "utter posturing hogwash". The fact that it was published, of course, was vastly embarrassing for the aggrieved editors of the journal, not to mention all those posturing buffoons who commended the article as a landmark paper (hah!). Anyway, this book is a debunking of the academic world, iconic radically postmodernist thinkers who are exposed as frauds invoking the name of science to fortfiy their non-scientific theories with a condescending veneer of credibility. Really, really funny stuff. |