Product Description

When Intellectual Impostures was published in France, it sent shock waves through the Left Bank establishment. When it was published in Britain, it provoked vicious debate. Sokal and Bricmont examine the canon of French postmodernists - Lacan, Kristeva, Baudrillard, Irigaray, Latour, Virilio, Deleuze and Guattari - and systematically expose their abuse of science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #324110 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-03
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1996, an article entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" was published in the cultural studies journal Social Text. Packed with recherché quotations from "postmodern" literary theorists and sociologists of science, and bristling with imposing theorems of mathematical physics, the article addressed the cultural and political implications of the theory of quantum gravity. Later, to the embarrassment of the editors, the author revealed that the essay was a hoax, interweaving absurd pronouncements from eminent intellectuals about mathematics and physics with laudatory--but fatuous--prose.

In Intellectual Imposteurs, Alan Sokal, the author of the hoax, and Jean Bricmont contend that abuse of science is rampant in postmodernist circles, both in the form of inaccurate and pretentious invocation of scientific and mathematical terminology and in the more insidious form of epistemic relativism. When Sokal and Bricmont expose Jacques Lacan's ignorant misuse of topology, or Julia Kristeva's of set theory, or Luce Irigaray's of fluid mechanics, or Jean Baudrillard's of non-Euclidean geometry, they are on safe ground; it is all too clear that these virtuosi are babbling.

Their discussion of epistemic relativism--roughly, the idea that scientific and mathematical theories are mere "narrations" or social constructions--is less convincing, however, in part because epistemic relativism is not as intrinsically silly as, say, Regis Debray's maunderings about Gödel, and in part because the authors' own grasp of the philosophy of science frequently verges on the naive. Nevertheless, Sokal and Bricmont are to be commended for their spirited resistance to postmodernity's failure to appreciate science for what it is. --Glenn Branch, Amazon.com

Review
'A splendid book.' Richard Dawkins, Nature 'A delicious revelation that even the perpetrators of postmodern philosophy often have no idea what they're saying.' The Observer 'The exposure of ignorance, pomposity and pseudo-science in this book are truly breathtaking.' Sunday Telegraph 'A forensic examination of sackloads of ordure from the postmodern stable.' Financial Times

About the Author
Alan Sokal is Professor of Physics at New York University. In 1996 his infamous article 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity' which parodied postmodernists use of scientific language was published in all seriousness by the American cultural journal Social Text, thus becoming one of the great academic hoaxes of all time. Jean Bricmont is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Louvin in Belgium.

Customer Reviews

Witty attack on pretentious 'postmodernists'
Sokal and Bricmont, two professors of physics, show that fashionable French intellectuals in the fields of social and cultural studies - Jacques Lacan, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, Julia Kristeva, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Luce Irigaray - habitually misuse scientific concepts and terms. Unable to produce genuine science in their own fields, Lacan et al import concepts from the physical sciences - typically, chaos theory, fuzzy logic and the uncertainty principle - to try to impress. They regard science, evidence, reason and knowledge as oppressive. Kristeva characteristically responded to criticism by calling Sokal and Bricmont Francophobes!

The two physicists attack relativism, the idea that a statement's truth or falsity is relative to an individual or social group. (Some US colleges run courses like 'queer studies', whose very subject is defined in relation to the interests of a social group, not by its field of study.) Relativists imply that modern science is just a 'myth', a 'narration' or a 'social construction'. This allows in the notion that, for instance, creationism is just as valid as the theory of evolution.

The editors of 'Social Text' accepted Sokal's famous spoof article, 'Transgressing the boundaries: towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity', in which he wrote: "Physical 'reality', no less than social 'reality', is at bottom a social and linguistic construct." The editors of 'Science and Culture' accepted the Madsens' supposedly serious article, 'Structuring postmodern science', in which they wrote "A simple criterion for science to qualify as postmodern is that it be free from any dependence on the concept of objective truth." Says it all really!

This book tears apart these postmodernist theorists. Sokal and Bricmont uphold the scientific approach, that knowledge is based on respect for the clarity and logical coherence of theories and on the confrontation of theories with empirical evidence. Knowledge in both natural and social science is cumulative; our understanding of the world grows as we constantly check our ideas against the reality.

The merde hits the fan
This book grew out of the famous hoax in which Alan Sokal published a parody article in the American postmod journal Social Text. The article was filled with non sequiturs and nonsensical quotations about maths and physics by prominent French and American intellectuals, yet it was published unaltered. Sokal then revealed that it was a deliberate parody, to the great consternation of the editors.

Intellectual Impostures broadens the investigation to demonstrate how intellectuals such as Lacan, Kristeva, Irigaray, Baudrillard, Deleuze and Guattari have repeatedly abused scientific concepts and terminology. They have either used these ideas completely out of context without justification or they have thrown scientific jargon around with no regard for its meaning or relevance, obviously to try to impress their readers.

In the preface to the first edition, Sokal and Bricmont provide the background to the controversy whilst in the preface to the second edition they discuss the four types of criticisms of their book. These are: critics who tried to refute them, critics who attributed to them ideas that the authors themselves had rejected, name-calling and ad hominem attacks, and finally those who agreed but thought that the authors did not go far enough.

Here one is tempted to partly agree with Anne Applebaum who, in her review of the book, claimed that of course post-structuralist theory is rubbish and that we don't need a book to tell us that. I disagree with the second statement, because Intellectual Impostures is mostly an amusing read that will have you rolling on the floor and because it is vitally important that intellectual frauds be exposed. In this regard I also highly recommend The Illusions Of Postmodernism by Terry Eagleton and The Anti Chomsky reader by David Horowitz and Peter Collier.

The introduction provides the history of the Sokal Hoax and the response to it. The major part of the book consists of an analysis of various texts by Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Bruno Latour, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and Paul Virilio. Brief explanations of the relevant scientific concepts plus references to popular and explanatory texts are provided. The authors also investigate certain philosophical and scientific confusions behind much of postmodernist thinking, like cognitive relativism, certain misunderstandings concerning chaos theory and so-called postmodern science.

Appendix A is the full text of the famous hoax article: Trangressing The Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. Appendix B consists of comments on the parody and Appendix C serves as an afterword on the hilarious incident. This amusing and illuminating book concludes with a 14-page bibliography and an index.

You may need a wee dram while reading
What an ordeal the authors of this book must have endured in researching the material for it! Even wading through the snippets and samples used to illustrate their arguments is a mind-warping exercise. Describing the phenomenon of "postmodernism" as "nebulous Zeitgeist," they expand on the definition with characteristics of postmodernist writings. These elements are abuse of scientific terms and use of meaningless terminology, offering empty opinions on how science works and its impact on society. Manipulating science for philosophic ends might be considered harmless, if it was but an ignorant assault on the discipline alone. Instead, the deconstructionist view wants the whole of society to reconsider its roots in their lights - it is an intellectual revolution. Unlike other revolutions, however, postmodernism is purely destructive having no discernible aims.

The authors make a sincere effort to limit their diagnosis to a limited scope. They avoid judgment on the philosophies in general. By offering lengthy original quotes, countered by an analysis of the scientific principles clumsily interpreted by the PM writers, they invite readers to arrive at their own assessment. The reader is given brief but informative passages on the scientific topics in support of this exercise. It takes, however, a dedicated reader to wade through the morass of "profound prose" the PMs have conceived without querying its fundamental validity. What is interesting in their presentation is the focus on French sources. In this approach, they attack the contagion at its source. A diagnosis of its infection among North American academics isn't presented. That has been done elsewhere.

Yet the authors understand that the postmodernist movement has strong adherents in North America. This reaches far outside the university community to reach government policy makers, educators at all levels and even the business community. Among educators, postmodernist impact on feminist thinking has outstripped its role in other humanist issues. Feminists may not address specific scientific topics as such, but are given to broad sweeping statements castigating half of the human species. Luce Irigary is given much space in this book due to her outrageous assertions and her impact on North American feminism which adopts them gleefully. Sokal and Bricmont, in their conclusion, see this resulting in a violation on educational standards. It is, in truth, a raping of young minds. This book, then, is a sharp warning to those who force artificial standards on behaviour and school curricula. Read it, difficult as the postmodernist passages are, with the intention to look at the issues further. They are before you now and require action. It is your children who will benefit from what Sokal and Bricmont have offered.