BEYOND THE HOAX: SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Alan Sokal | 488 pages | 19 Mar 2010 | Oxford University Press | 9780199561834 | English | Oxford, United Kingdom Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture PDF Book Jul 02, Ugh rated it liked it. Views Read Edit View history. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. Friend Reviews. Read an excerpt of this book! This may have been his thinking, but I thought it came off as arrogant. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Everyone in the US - even the Amish - makes at least some use of the fruits of science. Sokal is one of the most powerful voices in the continuing debate about the status of evidence-based knowledge. Religion, politics and survival It may be a particularly shitty butterfly, but that doesn't mean it's at all interesting to break. I found Sokal's critiq The only aspect of the Sokal Hoax I was aware of before I read this book was that the hoax article Sokal wrote about physics was submitted to a publication that did not subject articles to peer review. To ask other readers questions about Beyond the Hoax , please sign up. His critique would also gain more credibility from encompassing his own community: the failure of scientific institutions to address the abuse of statistical methods or promote systematic reviews is no less of a threat to progress than the ramblings of postmodernists or fundamentalists. However, he is a de The first couple of chapters the ones describing the hoax were pretty good, but after that it veers off into armchair philosophizing about the philosophy of science; it's not that I didn't agree with him on most points, but if I'm going to spend time reading about the philosophy of science, I'm going to read what a specialist says about it. I was initially skeptical of Sokal's negative assessments of some post-modern feminist and anti-colonialist critiques of science but his detailed discussions of both theories and related movements were ultimately very convincing. The problem is a lot simpler: people like to feel smart. Lists with This Book. An afterword. In , Sokal revisited the Sokal affair and its implications in Beyond the Hoax. Books by Alan Sokal. Excellent critique of the overreaching of deconstructionist social theory -- which I am sympathetic to, in general. I wouldn't want to give the wrong impression of the book by giving it a higher score, because it is a lot of pages on quite a niche topic, and because the actual input from the author constitutes only so much of the book, and contributes only so much insight, but it's a book that I for the most part really enjoyed reading, and I find myself liking and admiring Sokal himself rather a lot too. Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy, and Culture is a book by Alan Sokal detailing the history of the Sokal affair in which he submitted an article full of "nonsense" to a journal and was able to get it published. Oxford University Press. Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture Writer Regarding the actual content of the book one cannot find much to nag about, however, it does feel disjointed. Welcome back. Add to Wishlist. When Sokal draws Sokal protests that this is not a collection of B-sides, so to speak, but a continuous whole, even if its parts were previously published separately. Oct 03, David rated it really liked it. New York. Michael Shermer [3] praised the book as "an essential text" and summarized the argument, writing that:. This book is about postmodern relativism, pseudoscience, "alternative" medicine like homeopathy , and religion. A compilation of papers by Sokal about Science, Philosophy of Science, Culture, and Politics, including an annotated reprint of his famous Social Text hoax. Oxford University Press. Now, in Beyond the Hoax, Sokal revisits this remarkable chapter in our intellectual history to illuminate issues that are with us even more pressingly today than they were a decade ago. He replied to leftist and postmodernist criticism of the deception by saying that his motivation had been to "defend the Left from a trendy segment of itself. It can also feel partly underdeveloped since the essays found here are argui Sokal is a philosophically-minded scientist who deals with social and political issues in a very interesting and accessible manner. I believe the phrase "It goes without saying that I expected the text of the Sokal Hoax exposing anti-reality post modernism but the extensive footnotes where a bonus. His critique would also gain more credibility from encompassing his own community: the failure of scientific institutions to address the abuse of statistical methods or promote systematic reviews is no less of a threat to progress than the ramblings of postmodernists or fundamentalists. In truth, the two essays from part 2 and the first from part 3 are pretty similar, and in fact certain paragraphs from the different essays are repeated word-for-word not just once but a couple of times between the different essays. It was interesting for me to learn that one of Sokal's main goals behind the hoax was to help left-wing goals. I can't believe that Irigaray's essay 'Is the subject of science sexed? This includes work on the chromatic polynomial and the Tutte polynomial, which appear both in algebraic graph theory and in the study of phase transitions in statistical mechanics. May 17, Liam rated it liked it Shelves: intellectual-history , nonfiction , post-modern , way-too-long , essays , philosophy. Download as PDF Printable version. Lists with This Book. Less than meets the eye. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Damn post-modernists.. What's more, to the extent that it embraces extreme cultural relativism, the academic world becomes powerless to counter movements such as creationism, intelligent design and global warming deniers. There is progress in science, and some views really are superior to others, regardless of the color, gender, or country of origin of the scientist holding that view. This is a collection of essays, of which the first is an annotated version of the hoax paper and the rest is largely uninteresting. Sokal's goal, throughout the book, is to expose the dangers in such thinking and to defend a scientific worldview based on respect for evidence, logic, and reasoned argument over wishful thinking, superstition, and demagoguery of any kind. He includes several other articles and essays, some appearing here for the first time, that underscore the pervasiveness of scientific nonsense masquerading as serious academic scholarship. That means your attention is divided three ways: to the article, to the footnotes to the article, and to the annotations. Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture Reviews While I wholeheartedly endorse his mission, this book was rather hit and miss. Jun 17, David rated it it was amazing Shelves: philosophy-religion , politics-government , science. The number of redundancies across chapters is astounding and very annoying. Community Reviews. Sokal followed up by co-authoring the book Impostures Intellectuelles with Jean Bricmont in published in English, a year later, as Fashionable Nonsense. The hight may be the first chapter: a kind of "director's commentary" on the original hoax-article. If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review. I was initially skeptical of Sokal's negative assessments of some post-modern feminist and anti-colonialist critiques of science but his detailed discussions of both theories and related movements were ultimately very convincing. He cautions about the consequences of undermining support for liberalism, rationality and empiricism. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. While I agree with Sokal on virtually all issues, this is a loosely collection of essays that range from great to merely so-so. He praised Lerner for his efforts not to be condescending toward the religious right, and he seemed to think he himself was also not being condescending, but insisting your way is the only enlightened way and calling every major religion superstition is pretty much the definition of condescending. He wasn't particularly worried about postmodernism in academia - it's silly, and hurts the humanities, but wasn't actually threatening science. Epilogue: Epistemology and ethics Index. Everyone understands why these people are Pretty disappointing. I can't believe that Irigaray's essay 'Is the subject of science sexed? If solid critical thinking and empirical analysis is dismissed or devalued, then modern society is at the mercy of every half-baked fringe movement from astrology to "field balance" medical practices the latter have actually been taught in some American nursing schools. First and most obvious, this is perhaps the worst edited book I've ever read. The problem is a lot simpler: people like to feel smart. Readers also enjoyed. About Alan Sokal. Details if other :. Michael Shermer [3] praised the book as "an essential text" and summarized the argument, writing that:. This article was chock-full of scientific absurdities and approving quotes of utter nonsense from leading science studies scholars. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. It took me two tries to get through this book. In the end, even though I was amused by the "Sokal hoax" and its aftermath, the book disappoints on many levels. However, it was parts 2 and 3 that I had highest hopes for, once the attraction of reading the hoax had lost its initial shine, and I think these parts are the most interesting overall. And that's what irritates Sokal, too. He replied to leftist and postmodernist criticism of the deception by saying that his motivation had been to "defend the Left from a trendy segment of itself.