Sokal Search: Annotated list of links

Alan Sokal Search: Annotated List of Links

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/ -- Google hit #1 and full of sublinks that I found very interesting. This is basically a laundry list of links (with a smattering of explanation here and there) to everything that Alan Sokal has ever done that he deems relavent to his work as well as links to sites that he believes are related to or support his views.

Some important links found on this page:

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html -- This link is found on the above page and goes to an article published in Social Text that argues that science in general and quantum physics in particular are simply social constructs based on political motivations.

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/lingua_franca_v4/lingua_franca_v4.html -- This link brings you to the revelation that the above article is a parody and systematically pokes holes in the argument (and lack there of) in the first article, ripping into the intellectual integrity of the editors of Social Text as well as the validity of subjective reality as a theory/concept.

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/afterword_v1a/afterword_v1a_singlefile.html -- This article, again relating to the first article, explains the reasons why he wrote the parody and the social implications he found in it's acceptance to a respected humanities academic journal. He laments the changes he has observed in the position of self-proclaimed Left wing thinkers and warns against the political implications in the postmodernist trend he sees in the humanities. He also argues for the importance of objective fact and truth for the functioning of larger social systems.

http://www.philosophers.co.uk/noframes/articles/sokalnf.htm -- This a summary of an interview of Alan Sokal by Julian Baggini. It explores Sokals perceptions on the need for more rigor in the intellectual process, his experience in writing outside of his official field, and discussions of a few of the reactions he received from readers after publishing his pieces regarding the issues of science and subjectivity vs. objectivity. The interview also touches on his book that addresses these issues as well as the misuse of science-related terms, primarily by French philosophers.

http://www.igc.apc.org/dissent/archive/winter97/aronosok.html -- This link provides an interesting analysis of Sokal's arguments by Stanley Aronowitz followed by Sokal's rebuttal to his analysis. Aronowitz claims that Sokal focused on the wrong issues, used poor representation of deconstructionist theory, and is operating on blind faith that the scientific method will erase all social influences on scientific observations. Sokal responds that he was not focusing on desconstructionism when referencing Andrew Ross and Sandra Harding, that Aronowitz is twisting his points, that he already addressed the cultrual influences in his Afterward, and that Anronwitz's arguments are old, accepted, and irrelevant. It is an interesting sparring session and I would be curious to see the two in a continued debate.

http://dannyreviews.com/h/Intellectual_Impostures.html -- This is a review of Sokal & Bricmont's book Intellectual Impostures written from the perspective of a reader with a self-proclaimed extensive math and science background. Danny Yee, the reviewer, presents the book as largely entertaining to those with the background to appreciate the difference in usage and contextual discrepencies since the explanations given by Sokal and Bricmont do not teach the concepts to an audience that is not already familiar with them. The reviewer claims that the points are a "systematic demolition [that] is totally convincing," however the credentials of the reviewer are sketchy at best, being a part-time department Computer Systems Manager at the University of Sydney in Australia and freelance review writer who has a bachelors of science and discontinued a started Ph.D program.

http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/stt/stt/sokal.htm -- This is another laundry list of links site that provides a sort of bus terminal to find more info on Alan Sokal and the phenomenon that he appartently sparked in the sciences and humanities, more and more often being referred to as the

"Science Wars" as I browse through sites.

Some interesting links found on this page:

http://www.chem.uva.nl/easst/Petition.html -- This is a petition from David Edge at the University of Edinburgh asking that the unprofessional harrassment and misrepresentation of noted scholars' ideas and work. I'm not sure exactly what occured at the conference he is referring to, but it sounds like this is getting ugly. There were also several other commentaries from David Edge addressing the libel issue in England and his negative view on this whole phenomenon.

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/robbins_tikkun.html -- This link is also referenced by other sites, but I first saw it through this one. This is an essay published by Bruce Robbins, one of the editors of Social Text in another journal, Tikkun. His stand is that although Sokal intended his first article to be a parody, this does not invalidate some of the points he raised. Robbins also argues that there must be a balance between the ideas of objective truths and social influences on science, using the need for empirical evidence to prove exploitation as an example related to the former and the outdated belief that blacks and women were inherently (implying scientifically/biologically) inferior as an example related to the latter. Another major issue that Robbins addresses is the need for interdisciplinary criticism.

Notes:

1. There were several links to pages in French and German. I do not have the foreign language skills to even decode most of the titles, much less the content of the pages.

2. The amount of available information is overwhelming and the quality of the sources widely varies. I cannot possibly exhaustively examine the issue at this point due to time constraints (although I would like the luxury to do so) and I have been so fascinated that I have already been sucked into a much more extensive reading and searching session on Alan Sokal than I ever originally intended and eventually need to accept the statements myself that I just made to you since I do need to sleep at some point.

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