 Cover of the first edition | |
| Authors | Alan Sokal Jean Bricmont |
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| Original title | Impostures intellectuelles |
| Language | French |
| Subjects | Postmodernism Philosophy of science |
| Published |
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| Publication place | France |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover andPaperback) |
| Pages | xiv, 300 |
| ISBN | 0-312-20407-8 |
| OCLC | 770940534 |
Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science (UK:Intellectual Impostures), first published in French in 1997 asImpostures intellectuelles, is a book by physicistsAlan Sokal andJean Bricmont.[1] As part of the so-calledscience wars, Sokal and Bricmont criticizepostmodernism in academia for the misuse of scientific andmathematical concepts in postmodern writing.
The book was published in English in 1998, with revisions to the original French edition for greater relevance to debates in the English-speaking world.[2] According to some reports, the response within thehumanities was "polarized";[3] critics of Sokal and Bricmont charged that they lacked understanding of the writing they were scrutinizing. By contrast, responses from the scientific community were more supportive.
Similar to the subject matter of the book, Sokal is best known for his eponymous1996 hoaxing affair, whereby he was able to get published a deliberately absurd article that he submitted toSocial Text, acritical theory journal.[4] The article itself is included inFashionable Nonsense as an appendix.[5]
Fashionable Nonsense examines two related topics:
The stated goal of the book is not to attack "philosophy, the humanities or the social sciences in general", but rather "to warn those who work in them (especially students) against some manifest cases ofcharlatanism."[1]: 5 In particular, the authors aim to "deconstruct" the notion that some books and writers are difficult because they deal with profound and complicated ideas: "If the texts seem incomprehensible, it is for the excellent reason that they mean precisely nothing."[1]: 6
Set out to show how numerous key intellectuals have used concepts from thephysical sciences andmathematics incorrectly, the authors intentionally provide considerably lengthy extracts in order to avoid accusations of taking sentences out of context. Such extracts pull from such works as those ofJacques Lacan,Julia Kristeva,Paul Virilio,Gilles Deleuze,Félix Guattari,Luce Irigaray,Bruno Latour, andJean Baudrillard, who—in terms of the quantity of published works, invited presentations, and of citations received—were some of the leadingacademics ofcontinental philosophy,critical theory,psychoanalysis, and/or thesocial sciences at the time of publication.
The book provides a chapter to each of the above-mentioned authors, "the tip of the iceberg" of a group of intellectual practices that can be described as "mystification, deliberately obscure language, confused thinking and the misuse of scientific concepts."[1]: xi For example, Irigaray is criticised for asserting thatE=mc2 is a "sexed equation" because "it privileges thespeed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us"; and for asserting thatfluid mechanics is unfairly neglected because it deals with "feminine"fluids in contrast to "masculine"rigid mechanics.[6] Similarly, Lacan is criticized for drawing an analogy betweentopology and mental illness that, in Sokal and Bricmont's view, is unsupported by anyargument and is "not just false: it is gibberish."[1]: 23
Sokal and Bricmont claim that they do not intend to analyzepostmodernist thought in general. Rather, they aim to draw attention to the abuse of concepts from mathematics and physics, their areas of specialty. The authors define this abuse as any of the following behaviors:
Sokal and Bricmont highlight the rising tide of what they callcognitive relativism, the belief that there are no objective truths but only local beliefs. They argue that this view is held by a number of people, including people who the authors label "postmodernists" and theStrong programme in thesociology of science, and that it is illogical, impractical, and dangerous. Their aim is "not to criticize the left, but to help defend it from a trendy segment of itself."[1]: xii QuotingMichael Albert,
[T]here is nothing truthful, wise, humane, or strategic about confusing hostility to injustice and oppression, which is leftist, with hostility to science and rationality, which is nonsense.[1]: xii
According toNew York Review of Books editorBarbara Epstein, who was delighted by Sokal's hoax, the response to the book within thehumanities was bitterly divided, with some delighted and some enraged;[3] in somereading groups, reaction was polarized between impassioned supporters and equally impassioned opponents of Sokal.[3]
PhilosopherThomas Nagel has supported Sokal and Bricmont, describing their book as consisting largely of "extensive quotations of scientific gibberish from name-brand French intellectuals, together with eerily patient explanations of why it is gibberish,"[7] and agreeing that "there does seem to be something about the Parisian scene that is particularly hospitable to reckless verbosity."[8]
Several scientists have expressed similar sentiments.Richard Dawkins, in a review of this book, said regarding the discussion ofLacan:[6]
We do not need the mathematical expertise of Sokal and Bricmont to assure us that the author of this stuff is a fake. Perhaps he is genuine when he speaks of non-scientific subjects? But a philosopher who is caught equating the erectile organ to the square root of minus one has, for my money, blown his credentials when it comes to things that Idon't know anything about.
Noam Chomsky called the book "very important", and said that "a lot of the so-called 'left' criticism [of science] seems to be pure nonsense."[9]
Limiting her considerations to physics, science historian Mara Beller[10] maintained that it was not entirely fair to blame contemporary postmodern philosophers for drawing nonsensical conclusions fromquantum physics, since many such conclusions were drawn by some of the leading quantum physicists themselves, such asBohr orHeisenberg when they ventured into philosophy.[11]
Bruce Fink offers a critique in his bookLacan to the Letter, in which he accuses Sokal and Bricmont of demanding that "serious writing" do nothing other than "convey clear meanings".[12] Fink asserts that some concepts which the authors consider arbitrary or meaningless do have roots in thehistory of linguistics, and thatLacan is explicitly using mathematical concepts in a metaphoric way, not claiming that his concepts are mathematically founded. He takes Sokal and Bricmont to task for elevating a disagreement with Lacan's choice of writing styles to an attack on his thought, which, in Fink's assessment, they fail to understand. Fink says that "Lacan could easily assume that his faithful seminar public...would go to the library or the bookstore and 'bone up' on at least some of his passing allusions."[12]
Similar to Fink, a review byJohn Sturrock in theLondon Review of Books accuses Sokal and Bricmont of "linguistic reductionism", claiming that they misunderstood the genres and language uses of their intended quarries.[13]
This point has been disputed by Arkady Plotnitsky (one of the authors mentioned by Sokal in hisoriginal hoax).[14] Plotnitsky says that "some of their claims concerning mathematical objects in question and specifically complex numbers are incorrect",[15]: 112–3 specifically attacking their statement thatcomplex numbers andirrational numbers "have nothing to do with one another".[1]: 25 Plotnitsky here defends Lacan's view "of imaginary numbers as an extension of the idea of rational numbers—both in the general conceptual sense, extending to its ancient mathematical and philosophical origins...and in the sense of modern algebra."[15]: 146 The first of these two senses refers to the fact that the extension ofreal numbers to complex numbers mirrors the extension ofrationals to reals, as Plotnitsky points out with a quote fromLeibniz: "From the irrationals are born the impossible or imaginary quantities whose nature is very strange but whose usefulness is not to be despised."[16]
Plotnitsky nevertheless agrees with Sokal and Bricmont that the "square root of −1" which Lacan discusses (and for which Plotnitsky introduces the symbol) is not, in spite of its identical name, "identical, directly linked, or even metaphorized via the mathematicalsquare root of −1", and that the latter "isnot the erectile organ".[15]: 147
While Fink and Plotnitsky question Sokal and Bricmont's right to say what definitions of scientific terms are correct,cultural theorists andliterary criticsAndrew Milner and Jeff Browitt acknowledge that right, seeing it as "defend[ing] their disciplines against what they saw as a misappropriation of key terms and concepts" by writers such as Jacques Lacan andLuce Irigaray.[17] However, they point out that Irigaray might still be correct in asserting thatE =mc2 is a "masculinist" equation, since "the social genealogy of a proposition has no logical bearing on its truth value."[17] In other words, gender factors may influencewhich of many possible scientific truths are discovered. They also suggest that, in criticising Irigaray, Sokal and Bricmont sometimes go beyond their area of expertise in the sciences and simply express a differing position on gender politics.[17]
In his response, first published inLe Monde as "Sokal and Bricmont Aren't Serious",Jacques Derrida writes that theSokal hoax is rather "sad", not only because Alan Sokal's name is now linked primarily to ahoax rather thanscience, but also because the chance to reflect seriously on this issue has been ruined for a broad public forum that deserves better.[18]: 70 Derrida reminds his readers that science and philosophy have long debated their likenesses and differences in the discipline ofepistemology, but certainly not with such an emphasis on thenationality of the philosophers or scientists. He calls it ridiculous and weird that there are intensities of treatment by the scientists, in particular, that he was "much less badly treated", when in fact he was the main target of the US press.[18]: 70
Derrida then proceeds to question the validity of their attacks against a few words he made in an off-the-cuff response during a conference that took place thirty years prior to their publication. He suggests there are plenty of scientists who have pointed out the difficulty of attacking his response.[18]: 71 He also writes that there is no "relativism" or a critique of Reason and theEnlightenment in his works. He then writes of his hope that in the future this work is pursued more seriously and with dignity at the level of the issues involved.[18]: 72
Probably no one concerned with postmodernism has remained unaware of it. People have been bitterly divided. Some are delighted, some are enraged. One friend of mine told me that Sokal's article came up in a meeting of a left reading group that he belongs to. The discussion became polarized between impassioned supporters and equally impassioned opponents of Sokal [...] Some of us who were delighted by Sokal's hoax, at one time had a more positive view of postmodernism.
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