Alan Sokal | |
|---|---|
 Sokal in 2011 | |
| Born | (1955-01-24)January 24, 1955 (age 70) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Known for | Sokal Affair |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics,mathematics,philosophy of science |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | An Alternate Constructive Approach to the φ4 3 Quantum Field Theory, and a Possible Destructive Approach to φ4 4 (1981) |
| Doctoral advisor | Arthur Wightman |
Alan David Sokal (/ˈsoʊkəl/SOH-kəl; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor ofmathematics atUniversity College London and professor emeritus ofphysics atNew York University. He works withstatistical mechanics andcombinatorics.
Sokal is a critic ofpostmodernism, and caused theSokal affair in 1996 when his deliberately nonsensical paper was published byDuke University Press'sSocial Text. He also co-authored a paper criticizing thecritical positivity ratio concept inpositive psychology.
Sokal received hisBachelor of Arts degree fromHarvard College in 1976 and hisPhD fromPrinceton University in 1981. He was advised by the physicistArthur Wightman. During the summers of 1986, 1987, and 1988, Sokal taughtmathematics at theNational Autonomous University of Nicaragua, when theSandinistas controlled the elected government.
Sokal's research involvesmathematical physics and combinatorics. In particular, he studies the interplay between these topics based on questions concerning statistical mechanics andquantum field theory. This includes work on thechromatic polynomial and theTutte polynomial, which appear both inalgebraic graph theory and in the study ofphase transitions in statistical mechanics. His interests includecomputational physics andalgorithms, such asMarkov chain Monte Carlo algorithms for problems in statistical physics. He also co-authored a book onquantum triviality.[1]
In 2013, Sokal co-authored a paper with Nicholas Brown and Harris Friedman, rejecting theLosada Line, a concept popular inpositive psychology. Named after its proposer,Marcial Losada, it refers to a critical range for an individual's ratio of positive tonegative emotions, outside of which the individual will tend to have poorer life and occupational outcomes.[2] This concept of a critical positivity ratio was much cited and popularised by psychologists such asBarbara Fredrickson. The trio's paper, published inAmerican Psychologist, contended that the ratio was based on faulty mathematical reasoning and therefore invalid.[3]
In 1996, Sokal was curious whether the then-non-peer-reviewedpostmoderncultural studies journalSocial Text (published byDuke University Press) would publish a submission which "flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions". Sokal submitted a grand-sounding but completely nonsensical paper titled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a TransformativeHermeneutics of Quantum Gravity."[4][5]
After holding the article back from earlier issues because of Sokal's refusal to consider revisions, the staff published it in the "Science Wars" issue as a relevant contribution.[6] Soon thereafter, Sokal then revealed that the article was ahoax in the journalLingua Franca,[7] arguing thatleftists andsocial science would be better served by intellectual underpinnings based onreason. The affair was front-page news inThe New York Times on May 18, 1996. Sokal responded to leftist and postmodernist criticism of the deception by asserting that he was himself a leftist, and that his motivation was to "defend the Left from a trendy segment of itself".
The affair, together withPaul R. Gross andNorman Levitt's 1994 bookHigher Superstition, can be considered to be a part of the so-calledscience wars.
Sokal followed up in 1997 by co-authoring the bookImpostures Intellectuelles with physicist and philosopher of scienceJean Bricmont (published in English, a year later, asFashionable Nonsense). The book accuses some social sciences academics of using scientific and mathematical terms incorrectly and criticizes proponents of the "strong program" of thesociology of science for denying the value of truth. The book had contrasted reviews, with some lauding the effort,[8] and some more reserved.[9][10]
In 2008, Sokal reviewed the Sokal affair and its implications in the bookBeyond the Hoax.
In 2024, Sokal co-authored an opinion-editorial article in the newspaperThe Boston Globe with evolutionary biologistRichard Dawkins criticizing the use of the terminology "sex assigned at birth" instead of "sex" by theAmerican Medical Association, theAmerican Psychological Association, theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics, and theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. Sokal and Dawkins argued thatsex is an "objective biological reality" that "is determined at conception and is thenobserved at birth," rather thanassigned by a medical professional. Terming this "social constructionism gone amok," Sokal and Dawkins argued further that "distort[ing] the scientific facts in the service of a social cause" risks undermining trust in medical institutions.[11] Sokal repeated these criticisms in an editorial for the magazineThe Critic discussing the more generalpoliticization of science, especially biology and medicine.[12]
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