Alan Sokal

Professor Emeritus of Physics, New York University
and Professor of Mathematics, University College London

• Papers by Alan Sokal on science, philosophy and culture
• Sokal-Bricmont book Impostures Intellectuelles / Fashionable Nonsense
• Sokal book Beyond the Hoax
• Debates
  • Debate in Lingua Franca
  • Debate in Dissent
  • Debate in Tikkun
  • Debate in Libération
  • Debate in Le Monde
  • Debate in La Recherche
  • Debate in Physics World
  • Debate in Physics Today
  • Debate in Folha de São Paulo
  • Debate in Metascience
  • Debate in Economic and Political Weekly
• Commentary by other people
• Interviews/Podcasts/Videos
• Reviews of Impostures Intellectuelles / Fashionable Nonsense
• Reviews of Beyond the Hoax
• Some books of interest
• Other useful Web sites on the "Social Text Affair"
  • Jason Walsh site NOTE NEW LOCATION!!!
  • Gen Kuroki site
  • "The Science Wars Homepage" Please note that I do not endorse the title of this page; in my opinion this is an intellectual debate, not a "war"! But this page does contain much useful material.
  • Sokal et Bricmont dans la presse francophone (bibliographie, en français) NOTE NEW LOCATION!!!
  • Vittorio Bertolini site (sito in italiano) NOTE NEW LOCATION!!!
  • Jukka-Pekka Takala site (site in Finnish and Scandinavian languages)

  • Postmodern essay generator (courtesy of Andrew Bulhak, see description and source code)
  • Postmodern sentence generator
  • SCIgen, a program for generating random computer-science research papers (courtesy of Jeremy Stribling, Max Krohn and Dan Aguayo, three computer-science grad students at MIT)
  • Mathgen, a program for generating random mathematics research papers (courtesy of Nate Eldredge, incorporating code from SCIgen). And see also the delicious story of the Mathgen paper accepted at a (pseudo-)journal: here and here.
  • snarXiv, an archive of randomly generated titles/abstracts of papers in high-energy physics (courtesy of David Simmons-Duffin). Also, play the arXiv vs. snarXiv game: guess which paper titles are real and which are fake! (My own score is a lousy 83%)
  • Theorem Generator, a generator of random "theorems" and "proofs" (also courtesy of David Simmons-Duffin).
  • And less technically sophisticated but still amusing, the Corporate B.S. Generator

• Back to Alan Sokal's Physics Department Page (see also old page)

Papers by Alan Sokal on science, philosophy and culture

"Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity"

This is the original "parody" article, published in Social Text #46/47, pp. 217-252 (spring/summer 1996).

Available in four formats:

• HTML (one large file, 142 KB: easiest to download and print)
• HTML (many smaller files: perhaps easier to browse)
• Postscript (365 KB, 39 pages)
• PDF (436 KB, 39 pages)

Also available in Croatian.

An annotated version of this article -- explaining some of the jokes and providing much additional bibliography -- appears as Chapter 1 of my book Beyond the Hoax.

"A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies"

This is the article in which I reveal the parody, published in Lingua Franca, May/June 1996, pp. 62-64.

Available in four formats:

• HTML
• Plain ASCII text
• Postscript (112 KB, 6 pages)
• PDF (140 KB, 6 pages)

Also available in Croatian, Finnish, German, Romanian and Albanian.

"Transgressing the Boundaries: An Afterword"

Here I explain in more detail why I wrote the parody. This article was submitted to Social Text but rejected by them on the grounds that it did not meet their intellectual standards. It has now appeared in Dissent 43(4), pp. 93-99 (Fall 1996); and, in slightly different form, in Philosophy and Literature 20(2), pp. 338-346 (October 1996); and, in an updated version, as Chapter 2 of my book Beyond the Hoax.

Available in three formats:

• HTML (36 KB)
• Postscript (163 KB, 15 pages)
• PDF (208 KB, 15 pages)

Also available in Croatian and Azerbaijani.

One of the references cited in this article is my "Informe sobre el plan de estudios de las carreras de Matemática, Estadística y Computación" to the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua -- Managua (1987, unpublished). For whatever it might be worth 30-odd years later, I am making it available here.

"A Plea for Reason, Evidence and Logic"

Transcript of a talk presented at a forum at New York University on October 30, 1996. It was reprinted in New Politics 6(2), pp. 126-129 (Winter 1997). A slightly expanded version of this talk was presented at the Socialist Scholars Conference (New York, March 30, 1997) and was published under the title "Truth, Reason, Objectivity and the Left" in the Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay), April 18, 1998, pp. 913-914; in further revised form in Mistaken Identities: The Second Wave of Controversy over "Political Correctness", edited by Cyril Levitt et al. (Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 1999), pp. 285-294; and, in yet further revised form, as Chapter 3 of my book Beyond the Hoax.

"Les mystifications philosophiques du professeur Latour"

"Professor Latour's Philosophical Mystifications"

Reply to an article by Bruno Latour. Published in Le Monde, 31 January 1997, page 15.

"What the Social Text Affair Does and Does Not Prove"

Published in A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths about Science, edited by Noretta Koertge (Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 9-22. Reprinted, in slightly different form, in Critical Quarterly 40(2), pp. 3-18 (Summer 1998); in After the Science Wars, edited by Keith M. Ashman and Philip S. Baringer (Routledge, January 2001); and as Chapter 5 of my book Beyond the Hoax. Also available in Japanese.

"Impostures Intellectuelles" / "Fashionable Nonsense" (by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont)

Book first published in French by Éditions Odile Jacob, October 1997. The second French edition -- which is much revised, and includes a new preface responding to our critics -- was published in March 1999 by Livre de Poche (price 50 FF), and can be ordered on-line from amazon.co.fr or FNAC.

The English edition was published in the UK in July 1998 by Profile Books under the title Intellectual Impostures; it can be ordered on-line from W.H. Smith or amazon.co.uk. It was published in the US in November 1998 by Picador USA, an imprint of St. Martin's Press, under the title Fashionable Nonsense; it can be ordered on-line from Barnes and Noble or amazon.com. Click here for the preface and first chapter in English.

And see here for the preface to the second English edition, which addresses some of the critiques of our book.

Lecturers who are considering the book for potential student use may obtain an academic inspection copy: please direct your requests here for UK, Europe and the British Commonwealth, and here for US and Canada.

Translations into Catalan, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish and Turkish have been published. Click here for the preface in Portuguese.

Translations into Chinese (PRC), Chinese (Taiwan) and Russian are in the works. I will post more information as it becomes available.

For reviews of Impostures Intellectuelles / Fashionable Nonsense, click here.

"The Furor over Impostures Intellectuelles"

"Les réactions face à la parution d'Impostures Intellectuelles"

"Réponse à Vincent Fleury et Yun Sun Limet"

Article, by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal, published in the Times Literary Supplement (London), 17 October 1997, p. 17 and, in slightly modified form, in Libération (Paris), 18-19 October 1997, p. 5.

"Du bon usage des métaphores"

Reply to an article by Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond. Published in La Recherche, November 1997, page 8.

"Les critiques de Derrida et de Dorra ratent leur cible"

Reply, by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal, to articles by Jacques Derrida and Max Dorra. Published in Le Monde, 12 December 1997, page 23. Also available in Portuguese and Spanish.

"The uses of obscurity"

By Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, October 1998. Originally intended for publication in the London newspaper The Observer, but bumped at the last minute to make way for breaking news, and never published.

"Risposta a Gianni Vattimo"

Reply, by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, to Professor Vattimo's review of the Italian edition of Intellectual Impostures (La Stampa, 20 maggio 1999). Published in Il Sole 24 Ore, 23 maggio 1999.

"Science and Sociology of Science: Beyond War and Peace"

Article by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal, published in The One Culture?: A Conversation about Science, edited by Jay Labinger and Harry Collins (University of Chicago Press, 2001), pp. 27-47. Available in PDF and Postscript formats. See also our contributions to round 2 (pp. 179-183) and round 3 (pp. 243-254) of this debate, as well as our reply to Gabriel Stolzenberg's review of The One Culture? [published in Social Studies of Science 34, 107-113 (2004)].

"Modesty, Rigor and Irony: Some remarks on Prodiges et vertiges de l'analogie: De l'abus des belles lettres dans la pensée, by Jacques Bouveresse"

Article by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal. Published in French translation in Agone 24, 115-122 (2000); and in Spanish translation as the prologue to the Spanish edition of Bouveresse's book (Libros del Zorzal, Buenos Aires, 2001).

"Defense of a modest scientific realism"

Article by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal, published in Knowledge and the World: Challenges Beyond the Science Wars, edited by Martin Carrier, Johannes Roggenhofer, Günter Küppers and Philippe Blanchard (Springer-Verlag, 2004), pp. 17-45. Available in PDF and Postscript formats.

"Commentary on Professor Barnes' paper `On social constructivist accounts of the natural sciences'"

Essay by Alan Sokal, published in Knowledge and the World: Challenges Beyond the Science Wars, edited by Martin Carrier, Johannes Roggenhofer, Günter Küppers and Philippe Blanchard (Springer-Verlag, 2004), pp. 128-136.

"Pseudoscience and Postmodernism: Antagonists or Fellow-Travelers?"

Essay by Alan Sokal, published in Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public, edited by Garrett G. Fagan (Routledge, 2006), pp. 286-361. Available in PDF and Postscript formats. Published in French translation, together with a very interesting preface by Jean Bricmont, by Éditions Odile Jacob (September 2005) under the title Pseudosciences et postmodernisme: Adversaires ou compagnons de route?.

"Taking the spin out of science"

Op-ed by Chris Mooney and Alan Sokal, published in the Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2007.

"Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture"

Book (486 pp.) published in March 2008 by Oxford University Press. It can be ordered on-line from amazon.co.uk, Barnes and Noble and amazon.com.

Click here for the Table of Contents and Preface. (Note that this is from my manuscript, not from the published book, so the page numbers are not exactly right.) And here is a 2-minute video summarizing what the book is about. Last but not least, here is the author photo (at least one of us is cute!).

For reviews of Beyond the Hoax, click here.

Translations into Spanish and Turkish have been published.

"What is science and why should we care?"

Third annual Sense About Science lecture, given at University College London on February 27, 2008. Also available as an audio podcast on the Guardian website.

A slightly modified version of this talk was given in Stockholm on May 26-27, 2009 at the Swedish Humanist Association and at the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and is available as a 39-minute video.

An expanded and updated version of this talk was published in Logos, vol. 12, no. 2 (spring 2013) and in Scientia Salon, March 26-28, 2014 (in three parts: Part I, Part II, Part III).

Une version est disponible également en français: "Qu'est-ce que la science? Quelle importance?".

"Taking evidence seriously"

Published (in slightly edited form) in The Guardian online edition on February 28, 2008. Also available in Polish.

"Defending science: An exchange"

A dialogue with philosopher Michael Lynch, published in the on-line version of the New York Times on March 11, 2012.

"The complex dynamics of wishful thinking: The critical positivity ratio"

Article by Nicholas J.L. Brown, Alan D. Sokal and Harris L. Friedman, published Online First in American Psychologist 68, 801-813 (2013). Also available at arXiv:1307.7006 [nlin.CD].

See also "Nick Brown smelled bull", by Vinnie Rotondaro (Narratively, October 17, 2013). Artículo también disponible en español.

And see "The British amateur who debunked the mathematics of happiness", by Andrew Anthony (The Observer [London], January 19, 2014).

For follow-ups, see our response to Fredrickson and our response to five other commenters.

See also the slides of my talk "Physics envy in psychology: A cautionary tale" at City College of New York, November 19, 2015.

Contribution to the discussion on "Should Religion Keep Its Privileged Status in American Law?"

Discussion (with Professor Marci Hamilton) at the Debating Law & Religion Workshop, Yale Law School, November 6, 2013.

Canulars académiques, les «maîtres à penser» démasqués

Article, by Anouk Barberousse, Philippe Huneman, Manuel Quinon, Arnaud Saint-Martin and Alan Sokal, published in Libération (Paris), 1 June 2016, pp. 20-21.

And see our radio interview at France Inter, mardi 7 juin 2016, 21h-22h.

And here are the original parodies (far more brilliant than my own!) concerning sociologist Michel Maffesoli ("Automobilités postmodernes : quand l’Autolib’ fait sensation à Paris") and philosopher Alain Badiou ("Ontology, Neutrality and the Strive for (non-)Being-Queer").

Science has nothing to learn from theology

Letter to Nature in response to the article by Kathryn Pritchard, "Religion and science can have a true dialogue", Nature 537, 451 (22 September 2016) --- which the editors of Nature decided not to publish.

See also here and here for a more detailed critique of Pritchard's article -- and of Nature's apparent editorial line -- by the distinguished biologist Jerry Coyne. And see Coyne's article "Seeing and believing" for a more detailed analysis of the incompatibility between religion and science.

"The conceptual penis as a social construct": Some thoughts

Analysis of the Boghossian-Lindsay hoax, published in eSkeptic, 7 June 2017. Reprinted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 June 2017.

Comment on the New York Times Magazine's profile of Bruno Latour

My critique of the New York Times Magazine's fawning profile of sociologist Bruno Latour ("Bruno Latour, the Post-Truth Philosopher, Mounts a Defense of Science", October 25, 2018).

And see also Andrew Gelman's comment.

Letter to Portland State University officials regarding the case of Professor Peter Boghossian

Letter concerning the proposed disciplinary action against Professor Peter Boghossian, co-author (with James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose) of the so-called "Grievance Studies" hoax.

See also here, where Professor Boghossian has posted the original documents concerning this case.

Are journal editors "human subjects"?

Published in Inside Higher Ed, January 24, 2019. See also here.

Comment on Brian Martin's article "Bad social science"

This is a comment on Brian Martin's article "Bad social science", which was published in Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 8, no. 3 (2019): 6-16. My comment was published in Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 8, no. 5 (2019): 36-47, with a title and section headers added by the editor. A reply by Martin followed in Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 8, no. 7 (2019): 13-17.

Open Letter to the President of the University of Nice / Lettre ouverte au Président de l'Université de Nice (30 May 2019)

Concerning the de-platforming of Professor Jean Bricmont, scheduled to give a lecture on quantum mechanics (!), because of his public defense of the freedom of expression.

Despite the star-studded list of signatories, I was unsuccessful in getting this Open Letter published in any French newsmagazine.

What "alternative facts" have wrought

Published in Arc Digital, 22 January 2021, where there are also interesting comments by readers and dialogue with me.

See also this article by Robert Grenier for similar ideas from a writer with a very different background from mine. Grenier also stresses an important psychological point: "We must all earnestly engage in an effort to listen to others' ideas, no matter how daft they may seem; to understand where such ideas come from, no matter how hateful the source; to meet assertion with reason and evidence, not counterassertion. And where our evidence is lacking, we must patiently seek it out. ... [T]ruth is unavailing if not presented with clear underlying fact, and if not conveyed with respect."

Submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights: Freedom of Expression

Submission to the Call for Evidence of the Joint Committee on Human Rights of the UK Parliament, 25 January 2021.

An abridged version of this submission -- redacted to remove reference to judicial cases sub judice -- was published on the Parliament website.

On Covid, Boris Johnson is fooling himself, again

Published in Areo Magazine, 4 March 2021.

This article was composed on the morning after Boris Johnson's 22 February speech -- outlining his "roadmap" for ending all coronavirus restrictions -- and was submitted, in succession, to three major British newspapers and to one major British news website. No response from any of them. Perhaps no one in the mainstream press wants, or even dares, to be a party-pooper. But someone has to be the messenger of bad tidings -- preferably before rather than after the fact.

It goes without saying that my reasoning could be mistaken; indeed, I very much hope that it is. We shall see.

See also some readers' comments, and my replies, on Andrew Gelman's blog.

Preface to the French edition of Gross + Levitt, Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and its Quarrels with Science

After more than 25 years, Gross and Levitt's influential book -- lauded in some circles, vilified in others -- is finally available in French. I was honored to contribute a preface.

Preface to the French edition of Pluckrose and Lindsay, Cynical Theories

Pluckrose and Lindsay's important recent book, Cynical Theories, has just appeared in French translation. I was honored to contribute a preface.

The moral argument for factual realism

Published in Areo Magazine,

Published in Areo Magazine, 14 October 2021.

Response to Judith Butler

Letter to The Guardian in response to the article by Judith Butler, "Why is the idea of ‘gender’ provoking backlash the world over?", The Guardian, 23 October 2021 --- which the editors of The Guardian decided not to publish. Indeed, as far as I can tell, The Guardian did not publish any letters in response to Butler's article.

Catechism class at British universities

Published in Areo Magazine, 26 October 2021.

French translation published in L'Express, 16 November 2021.

Submission to the UK Government consultation on "Banning conversion therapy"

My submission to the UK Government consultation on "Banning conversion therapy", 5 December 2021.

Further information on this issue can be found here and here at the website of the organization Sex Matters.

The bad-faith use of words

Published in Areo Magazine, 26 September 2022.

Spanish translation published in Letras Libres, 1 December 2022.

The implicit epistemology of White Fragility

Published in the Journal of Philosophy of Education 57(2), 517-552 (April 2023).

"White empiricism" and "The racialization of epistemology in physics": A critical analysis

Published in the Journal of Controversial Ideas 3(2), 1 (October 2023).

Free-speech hypocrisies: The Tory government and the University and College Union

Published in the The Critic, 24 January 2024.

Our illiberal Terrorism Act

Published in the The Critic, 9 February 2024.

Free speech for everyone, except ...

Published in the The Critic, 17 February 2024.

My review of Umut Özkırımlı's book Cancelled: The Left Way Back from Woke

Despite some imperfections, Özkırımlı's book has the merit of being one of the first explicit and thoroughgoing denunciations of "cancel culture" from within the radical left. And this makes it an important starting point for dialogue and debate: not only within the left, broadly defined, but also among fair-minded people of all political persuasions.

Published in the The Critic, 4 March 2024.

Spanish translation published in Letras Libres, 21 May 2024.

See also the panel discussion of Özkırımlı's book.

Academic freedom, free speech, and fashionable hypocrisy

Talk at the University of Kent, 3 April 2024. Also available as a video recording.

"Sex Assigned at Birth": The medical establishment betrays science, logic and common sense

Op-ed by myself and Richard Dawkins. Published in the Boston Globe, 8 April 2024, under the title "Sex and gender: The medical establishment's reluctance to speak honestly about biological reality". (This op-ed was previously rejected by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Kudos to the Globe for daring to publish it.)

Here are the letters from readers published by the Globe.

French translation published in Le Point, 18 April 2024.

Spanish translation published in Letras Libres, 1 May 2024.

Also translated into Romanian.

The deceptive use of words

Published in the The Critic, 15 April 2024.

Woke invades the sciences

Published in the The Critic, 14 May 2024.

How ideology threatens to corrupt science

Published in the The Critic, 22 May 2024.

Submission to the Office for Students consultation on "Proposed regulatory advice and other matters relating to freedom of speech"

My submission to the UK Office for Students consultation on "Proposed regulatory advice and other matters relating to freedom of speech", 21 May 2024.

Debates

• Debate in Lingua Franca
  • My article "A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies" (Lingua Franca, May/June 1996)
  • Response by Social Text editors Bruce Robbins and Andrew Ross (Lingua Franca, July/August 1996)
  • My reply to the Social Text editors (Lingua Franca, July/August 1996)
  • Letters from readers (Lingua Franca, July/August 1996)

• Debate in Dissent
  • My article "Transgressing the Boundaries: An Afterword" (Dissent, Fall 1996)
  • "Alan Sokal's `Transgression'", by Stanley Aronowitz (Dissent, Winter 1997)
  • "Alan Sokal Replies [to Stanley Aronowitz]" (Dissent, Winter 1997)

• Debate in Tikkun
  • "On Being Hoaxed", by Bruce Robbins (amusing preliminary version, circulated on the Internet circa August 1996)
  • "Anatomy of a Hoax", by Bruce Robbins (Tikkun, September/October 1996)
  • "Swallow Hard: What Social Text Should Have Done", by Jay Rosen (Tikkun, September/October 1996)
  • "Truth or Consequences: A Brief Response to Bruce Robbins", by Alan Sokal (Tikkun, November/December 1996)

• Debate in Libération
  • "Le canular du professeur Sokal", by Natalie Levisalles (Libération, 3 December 1996)
  • "La guerre des sciences aura-t-elle lieu?", by Natalie Levisalles (Libération, 30 September 1997)
  • "Fumée sans feu", by Robert Maggiori (Libération, 30 September 1997)
  • "L'escroquerie Sokal-Bricmont", by Vincent Fleury and Yun Sun Limet (Libération, 6 October 1997)
  • "Réponse à Vincent Fleury et Yun Sun Limet", by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal (Libération, 18-19 October 1997)
  • "Que se passe-t-il?", by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal (Libération, 18-19 October 1997)
  • "L'affaire Sokal, blague à part", by Marc Ragon (Libération, 6 October 1998)

• Debate in Le Monde
  • "La mystification pédagogique du professeur Sokal", by Nicolas Weill (Le Monde, 20 December 1996)
  • "Sokal n'est pas Socrate", by Denis Duclos (Le Monde, 3 January 1997)
  • "La vraie signification de l'affaire Sokal", by Jean Bricmont (Le Monde, 14 January 1997)
  • "Haro français sur le professeur américain", by Pierre Guerlain (Le Monde, 14 January 1997)
  • "Y a-t-il une science après la guerre froide?", by Bruno Latour (Le Monde, 18 January 1997)
  • "Les mystifications philosophiques du professeur Latour", by Alan Sokal (Le Monde, 31 January 1997) Also available in English.
  • "L'éclat de rire de Sokal", by Jean-Jacques Salomon (Le Monde, 31 January 1997)
  • "Grâce au ciel, à Sokal et à ses pareils", by Michel Rio (Le Monde, 11 February 1997)
  • "Savants contre docteurs", by Régis Debray (Le Monde, 18 March 1997)
  • "L'Américain Alan Sokal face aux `imposteurs' de la pensée française", by Marion Van Renterghem (Le Monde, 30 September 1997)
  • "Au risque du `scientifiquement correct'", by Roger-Pol Droit (Le Monde, 30 September 1997)
  • "Sokal-Bricmont: non, ce n'est pas la guerre", by Jacques Treiner (Le Monde, 11 October 1997) Also available in English.
  • "Quel impérialisme?", by Hubert Krivine (Le Monde, 11 October 1997) Also available in English.
  • "Sokal et Bricmont ne sont pas sérieux", by Jacques Derrida (Le Monde, 20 November 1997) Also available in Portuguese and Spanish.
  • "Métaphore et politique", by Max Dorra (Le Monde, 20 November 1997)
  • "Les critiques de Derrida et de Dorra ratent leur cible", by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal (Le Monde, 12 December 1997) Also available in Portuguese and Spanish.
  • "Requiem pour un moralisme scientifique", by Henri-Pierre Jeudy (Le Monde, 12 December 1997)
  • "Les sots calent" [et les briques montent?!], by Jacques Bouveresse (Le Monde de l'Éducation, January 1998)
  • "Des normaliens jugent l'affaire Sokal", interview with Mikaël Cozic, Léon Loiseau and Grégoire Kantardjian (Le Monde de l'Éducation, January 1998)
  • "Nous sommes tous des imposteurs", by Roger-Pol Droit (Le Monde, 2 October 1998)

• Debate in La Recherche
  • "Inventer une écologie des pratiques", interview with Isabelle Stengers (La Recherche, April 1997)
  • "Le relativisme alimente le courant irrationnel", interview with Jean Bricmont (La Recherche, May 1997)
  • "La paille des philosophes et la poutre des physiciens", by Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond (La Recherche, June 1997)
  • "Du bon usage des métaphores", by Alan Sokal (La Recherche, November 1997)
  • "Le cow-boy et l'apothicaire", by Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond (La Recherche, December 1997)
  • "Rire ou frémir?", by Amy Dahan-Dalmedico (La Recherche, December 1997)
  • "Lacan est-il scientifique?", by Marc Darmon and Charles Melman (La Recherche, February 1998)
  • "Un pamphlet salutaire?", by Jean-Paul Gouteux (La Recherche, March 1998)
  • "L'affaire Sokal et la balkanisation de la science", by Michel Claessens (La Recherche, March 1998)
  • "Bruno Latour et Alan Sokal", by Hector J. Sussmann (La Recherche, May 1998)
  • "Auguste Comte et l'affaire Sokal", by Eric Sartori (La Recherche, July/August 1998)
  • "Fausses impostures", by Hervé Le Bras (La Recherche, April 2000)

• Debate in Physics World
  • "Science studies - what's wrong?", by Jean Bricmont (Physics World, December 1997)
  • "What's wrong with relativism?", by Harry Collins (Physics World, April 1998)
  • "Striking back at sociology", by Nuno Barradas (Physics World, May 1998)
  • "Cannon-fodder for the science wars", by John Krige (Physics World, December 1998)
  • "Cannon-fodder for whose science wars?", reply by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont (Physics World, February 1999)

• Debate in Physics Today
  • "Was Sokal's hoax justified?", by Kurt Gottfried (Physics Today, January 1997).
  • "What's wrong with this reading", by N. David Mermin (Physics Today, October 1997).
  • Letters by Paul R. Gross and others, with reply by N. David Mermin (Physics Today, April 1998)
  • "The Sokal hoax: At whom are we laughing?", by Mara Beller (Physics Today, September 1998)
  • Letters by Lawrence S. Lerner and others, with reply by Mara Beller (Physics Today, January 1999)
  • Letter by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal, with replies by N. David Mermin and Mara Beller (Physics Today, August 1999)
  • Review of Fashionable Nonsense [Sokal/Bricmont], by N. David Mermin (Physics Today, April 1999)
  • Letters by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal, and others, with reply by N. David Mermin (Physics Today, October 1999)

• Debate in Folha de São Paulo
  • "O telhado de vidro do relativismo", by Cláudio Weber Abramo (Folha de São Paulo, 15 setembro 1996)
  • "A brincadeira de Sokal...", by Roberto Campos (Folha de São Paulo, 22 setembro 1996)
  • "A razão não é propriedade privada", by Alan Sokal (Folha de São Paulo, 6 outubro 1996)
  • "As razões do relativismo civilizado", by Jesus de Paula Assis (Folha de São Paulo, 6 outubro 1996)
  • "Sokal, parodista de si mesmo", by Olavo de Carvalho (Folha de São Paulo, 21 outubro 1996)
  • "O rei está nu", by Roberto Fernández (Folha de São Paulo, Jornal de Resenhas, 11 abril 1998)
  • "Descomposturas intelectuais", by Jacques Derrida (Folha de São Paulo, 19 abril 1998)
  • "Uma crítica sem fundamento", by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont (Folha de São Paulo, 19 abril 1998)
  • "Quinze minutos de notoriedade", by Bento Prado Jr. (Folha de São Paulo, Jornal de Resenhas, 9 maio 1998)
  • "Imposturas e fantasias", by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont (Folha de São Paulo, Jornal de Resenhas, 13 junho 1998)

• Debate in Metascience
  • Reviews of Intellectual Impostures by David Turnbull, Henry Krips, Val Dusek and Steve Fuller (Metascience 9.3, November 2000)
  • Reply by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal (Metascience 9.3, November 2000) Available in PDF and Postscript formats.

• Debate in Economic and Political Weekly [Bombay]
  • "The Science Question in Post-Colonial Feminism", by Meera Nanda (Economic and Political Weekly, April 20, 1996)
  • "Sokal's Hoax and Tensions in Scientific Left", by Gita Chadha (Economic and Political Weekly, August 30, 1997)
  • "Truth, Reason, Objectivity and the Left", by Alan Sokal (Economic and Political Weekly, April 18, 1998) Available in Postscript and PDF formats.
  • "Reclaiming Modern Science for Third World Progressive Social Movements", by Meera Nanda (Economic and Political Weekly, April 18, 1998)
  • Review of "Naked Science: Anthropological Inquiry into Boundaries, Power, and Knowledge" (edited by Laura Nader), by André Gunder-Frank (Economic and Political Weekly, October 17-24, 1998)
  • "Sokal's Hoax: A Backlash to Science Criticism", by Gita Chadha (Economic and Political Weekly, November 21, 1998)
  • "Science, Knowledge and Society", by Sundar Sarukkai (Economic and Political Weekly, April 2, 1999)
  • "Debate over Science: Moving Past Politics of Nostalgia", by Meera Nanda (Economic and Political Weekly, May 1, 1999)
  • "Setting the Record Straight: A Response to Gita Chadha", by Alan Sokal (Economic and Political Weekly, April 8, 2000) Available in Postscript and PDF formats.
  • "Breaking the Spell of Dharma: A Case for Indian Enlightenment", by Meera Nanda (Economic and Political Weekly, July 7, 2001)

Commentary by other people

• "Scientist Takes Academia for a Ride with Parody", by Linda Seebach (May 12, 1996)
• "Transgressing the Transgressors: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Total Bullshit", by Gary Kamiya (Salon, May 17, 1996)
• "Romps Smite Don", by Robert Paul
• "Professor Sokal's Bad Joke", by Stanley Fish (New York Times, May 21, 1996)
• "A Physics Prof Drops a Bomb on the Faux Left", by Ruth Rosen (Los Angeles Times, op-ed, May 23, 1996)
• "Pomolotov Cocktail", by Katha Pollitt (The Nation, June 10, 1996)
• "A Mathematician Reads Social Text", by Michael C. Sullivan (Notices of the American Mathematical Society, October 1996)
• "A Report from the Front of the `Science Wars' ", by Evans M. Harrell II (Notices of the American Mathematical Society, October 1996)
• "Sokal's Hoax, by Steven Weinberg (New York Review of Books, August 8, 1996). See also "Sokal's Hoax: An Exchange" (New York Review of Books, October 3, 1996), with contributions by Michael Holquist, Robert Shulman, George Levine, M. Norton Wise, Nina Byers and Claudio Pellegrini and a response by Steven Weinberg.
• "What the Sokal Hoax Ought to Teach Us", by Paul Boghossian (Times Literary Supplement, December 13, 1996). Also available in German, Portuguese and Spanish.
• "The Science Wars in India", by Meera Nanda (Dissent, Winter 1997)
• "My Science Wars", by Harold Fromm (Hudson Review, Winter 1997)
• "Postmodernism and the Left", by Barbara Epstein (New Politics, Winter 1997)
• "Splendours and Miseries of the Science Wars", by Nick Jardine and Marina Frasca-Spada (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, June 1997)
• "Just Doing Your Job: Some Lessons of the Sokal Affair", by Bruce Robbins (Yale Journal of Criticism, Fall 1997)
• "Authorizing Knowledge in Science and Anthropology", by Joan H. Fujimura (American Anthropologist, vol. 100, no. 2, June 1998). Also available in French.
• "The Science Police", by Harriet Swain (Times Higher Education Supplement, 10 July 1998)
• "A Plea for Science Studies", by Philip Kitcher (published in A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths about Science, edited by Noretta Koertge, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 32-56)
• "Qu'appellent-ils `penser'? Quelques remarques à propos de `l'affaire Sokal' et de ses suites", by Jacques Bouveresse (Cahiers Rationalistes, octobre et novembre 1998)
• "The Revolution That Didn't Happen", by Steven Weinberg (New York Review of Books, October 8, 1998)
• "Farewell to a Fad", by Barbara Ehrenreich (The Progressive, March 1999)
• "Weird Science", by Katha Pollitt (The Nation, September 20, 1999)
• "Multiculturalismo intelectual", by Roberto Fernández (Revista USP, Universidade de São Paulo, junho/agosto 1999)
• "Science of Chaos or Chaos in Science?", by Jean Bricmont (published in Physicalia Magazine, vol. 17, no. 3-4, 1995) Available in Postscript and PDF formats.
• "Mort et vie du positivisme", by Jean Bricmont (Espace de libertés, octobre 1999)
• "Comment peut-on être `positiviste'?", by Jean Bricmont. First published in Psychanalyse, que reste-t-il de nos amours?, edited by Francis Martens, Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2000/2, Éditions Complexe; reprinted in Éthique et épistémologie: Autour du livre "Impostures intellectuelles" de Sokal et Bricmont, edited by Angèle Kremer Marietti (L'Harmattan, February 2001).
• "Qu'est-ce que le matérialisme scientifique?", by Jean Bricmont
• "Science et religion: l'irréductible antagonisme", by Jean Bricmont (published in Où va Dieu?, edited by Antoine Pickels and Jacques Sojcher, Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1999/1, Éditions Complexe)
• Special issue of Esprit critique, Revue électronique de sociologie devoted to "L'affaire Sokal ou comment penser la connaissance scientifique: les enjeux épistémologiques d'une controverse pluridisciplinaire" (Esprit critique, vol. 3, no. 7, Juillet 2001). With articles by Arnaud Saint-Martin, François Bonnet, Magali Bidot and Manuel Quinon.
• "The God delusion in action: My Indian travelogue", by Meera Nanda (Nirmukta: Breaking the Spell, 3 October 2008) This brilliant essay about religiosity in contemporary India is eerily relevant to the United States as well. Here, for instance, is Nanda's response to the idea that we must "respect" other people's faith:

  I happen to believe that indulging people’s irrational beliefs -- like a parent puts up with a child’s follies -- does not add up to “respect”. In my rulebook, the best way to respect people you care about is to treat them as worthy conversation partners who can be persuaded by reason (or who may persuade you with better arguments and evidence). The way I see it, engaging people in an honest and open dialogue about the matters of ultimate concern is to pay them the highest grade of respect that there is.

• "Film theory and analytic philosophy; or, Film studies and L'affaire Sokal", by Murray Smith (Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image, no. 1, 2010). Article originally presented at a conference in May 1997.
• "The science wars redux", by Michael Bérubé (Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Issue #19, Winter 2011).
• "Bait and switch", an oral history by Jennifer Ruark (Chronicle of Higher Education, January 1, 2017)
• "How Alan Sokal won the battle but lost the ‘Science Wars’", by James B. Meigs (Commentary, November 2021)
• "Alan Sokal's joke is on us as postmodernism comes to science", by Lawrence Krauss (Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2024) Also available with hyperlinks at archive.ph.

Interviews/Podcasts/Videos

• Ciencia Hoy [Argentina], Julio/Agosto 1998
• The Philosophers' Magazine, Autumn 1998
• Revista de Antropologia (Universidade de São Paulo), vol. 41, no. 1, 1998
• Heureka [Vienna], no. 5, 1998
• El Viejo Topo [Barcelona], no. 132, Septiembre 1999
• Interview with Noretta Koertge [very interesting!], Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook 1999
• El Nuevo Diario [Nicaragua], 4 December 2000
• The Philosophers' Magazine, November 2009
• El País, 10 abril 2017
• Lumières, octobre 2017: Impostures intellectuelles: 20 ans après [entretien avec Jean Bricmont et Alan Sokal, en français]. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
• Early Universe, octubre 2018 [entrevista en español].
• Liberté Académique, Thoughts on the Grievance Studies Affair [interview in English], 21 March 2019. Also available here.
• Savage Minds, 21 July 2021 (2-hour podcast interview).
• Qubit [in Hungarian], 22 June 2022. English translation in Eurozine, 8 August 2022. Spanish translation in Letras Libres, 1 noviembre 2022.
• Panel discussion of Umut Özkirimli's book Cancelled: The Left Way Back from Woke, at the Free Speech Union, London, 13 September 2023.
• Transfronteirizas, conversas de arte e ciencia, 9 noviembre 2023 [entrevista en español].
• What is science and why should we care?, lecture organized by the Free Speech Union and Sense About Science, London, 27 March 2024.
• Academic freedom, free speech, and fashionable hypocrisy, talk at the University of Kent, 3 April 2024.

Reviews of Impostures Intellectuelles / Fashionable Nonsense

• "Les faux prophètes", by Jean-François Revel (Le Point, 11 octobre 1997)
• "Sokal ataca de nuevo", by Miguel de Asúa (Ciencia Hoy [Argentina], Noviembre/Diciembre 1997)
• "Ciencia, psicoanálisis y posmodernismo", by Michel Sauval (Acheronta [Argentina], Diciembre 1997 and Julio 1998). Also available in English and French.
• "Pour une véritable philosophie postmoderne des sciences", by Patrick Peccatte (La revue M, janvier-février 1998)
• "Fyysikot ja postmodernistit: Älyllisten huijausten analyysi voisi kertoa enemmänkin", by I.A. Kieseppä (Helsingin Sanomat [Finland], January 6, 1998)
• "Science-envy: Sokal, science and the police", by Bruce Robbins (Radical Philosophy, March/April 1998)
• "Ravens and Writing-Desks: Sokal and the Two Cultures", by Ronald Shusterman (Philosophy and Literature, April 1998)
• "Intellettuali Impostori: L'esperimento di un fisico con i Cultural Studies", by Giovanni B. Clemente (Il Mondo 3 [Italy], aprile/giugno 1998)
• "The symptoms of Gödel-mania", by Kevin Mulligan (Times Literary Supplement, May 1, 1998)
• "Intellektuelle Plattenslagere", by Niels Buch-Jepsen (Weekendavisen [Denmark], 20 Maj 1998)
• "Alan Sokal y las preciosas ridículas", by Hernán Díaz (Prensa Obrera [Argentina], 25 junio 1998)
• "Postmodernism disrobed", by Richard Dawkins (Nature, 9 July 1998)
• "Le pauvre Sokal", by John Sturrock (London Review of Books, 16 July 1998). See also letters 30 July and 20 August.
• "Intellectual Impostures", reviewed by Christopher Norris (The Independent, 18 July 1998)
• "Impostures intellectuelles", reviewed by William G. Faris (Notices of the American Mathematical Society, August 1998): available in PDF and Postscript formats.
• "Postmodernism: the Sokal affair", by Mick Underwood
• "Faking it", by Joe Kaplinsky (LM, September 1998)
• "The sleep of reason", by Thomas Nagel (The New Republic, October 12, 1998)
• "The lure of unreason", by John Weightman (Hudson Review, Autumn 1998)
• "Idiotsavants?", by Kristina Zarlengo (Salon, November 2, 1998)
• "Is Paris kidding?", by Jim Holt (New York Times Book Review, November 14, 1998)
• "Blinded by science", by Eric Lott (Village Voice Literary Supplement, December 1998)
• "It's a battlefield out there, culturally speaking", by Edward Rothstein (New York Times, December 7, 1998)
• "Don't Cut the Pi Yet!", by Alexander Alland (American Anthropologist, vol. 100, no. 4, December 1998)
• Scientists' rhetoric in the science wars", by Felicity Mellor (Public Understanding of Science 8, 51-56, January 1999): available in PDF and Postscript formats.
• "Sarcasmo e orgasmo", by Carlos Leone (Ciberkiosk [Portugal], Março 1999)
• "Of fine clothes and naked emperors", by Michael Bérubé (Tikkun, March/April 1999)
• "Intellectual terrorism or a just war?", by James Ladyman (Imprints, vol. 3, no. 3, Spring 1999)
• "Fashionable Nonsense", reviewed by N. David Mermin (Physics Today, April 1999). See also letters by Bricmont-Sokal and others, with reply by Mermin (Physics Today, October 1999).
• "El `Affaire' Sokal, el Ataque Posmodernista a la Ciencia y la Impostura Intelectual", by Edison Otero (Estudios Sociales [Chile], no. 100, Trimestre 2, 1999)
• Review of Imposturas Intelectuais, by Sara Farmhouse Bizarro (Disputatio, no. 6, May 1999)
• "Sokal and Bricmont: Is this the beginning of the end of the dark ages in the humanities?", by Raymond Tallis (PN Review, no. 128, June 1999)
• "Fashionable Nonsense", reviewed by Robert Weissberg (Academic Questions, Fall 1999)
• Review of Science Wars and Fashionable Nonsense, by Derek Lovejoy (Science and Society, Spring 2000)
• "Sokal, chaos and the way forward?", by Malcolm Williams (Sociology, vol. 34, no. 2, May 2000)
• "The post-modernist wonderland", by Stefan Steinberg (World Socialist Web Site, July 2000)
• Reviews of Intellectual Impostures by David Turnbull, Henry Krips, Val Dusek and Steve Fuller, with a reply by Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal (Metascience 9.3, November 2000)
• "Making sense of so much nonsense?", by Farseem M. Mohammedy (The Daily Star [Dhaka, Bangladesh], June 28, 2008)
• Anonymous review in The Complete Review
• "Fashionable Nonsense 20 Years Later'', by Matt McManus (Merion West, November 13, 2018)

Reviews of Beyond the Hoax

• "Book of the week", by Robert Matthews (Times Higher Education, 13 March 2008)
• Anonymous review in Publishers Weekly, March 17, 2008
• "Fight for the life of the mind", by Michael Shermer (New York Sun, May 21, 2008)
• Anonymous review in The Morning News, June 30, 2008
• "Transgressing against the postmodernists", by Damian Thompson (The American Conservative, June 30, 2008)
• "Science wars revisited", by N. David Mermin (Nature, vol. 454, pp. 276-277, 17 July 2008) See also the letter to the editor by Dr. Omar Ali, which the editors of Nature chose not to print.
• "Beyond the Hoax, a review", by James Ladyman (The Philosophers' Magazine, issue 42, 3rd quarter 2008)
• "Postmodernism, politics and religion", by Philip Anderson (Physics World, August 2008)
• "Truth's caper", by Simon Blackburn (The New Republic, August 13, 2008) See also the interesting comments by Allen Esterson and Brandon.
• "Scuppering the sceptics", by Dennis Rouvray (Chemistry World, August 2008)
• "Fighting fashionable nonsense: Beyond the Hoax", by Max Dunbar (Butterflies and Wheels, 19 September 2008)
• Anonymous review in The Complete Review, 4 October 2008
• "I svallvågorna av en parodi" [in Swedish], by Olle Häggström (Axess, number 8, 2008). Google supplies a crude English translation. (The author comments on Google's translation: "Arrgghhh ... amusing but painful to read! It's a bit like lecturing to a really stupid student who merely has the ability to pick up key words from the lecture, and then exposing him to an oral exam ...")
• "Collecting Science: Sokal, Dawkins, and McKibben", by Harold Fromm (Hudson Review, Autumn 2008)
• Book review by Trevor Hussey (Nursing Philosophy, October 2008)
• Book review by Peter R. Saulson (Physics Today, December 2008) See also my reply to Saulson's review (an abridged version of which was published in the July 2009 issue of Physics Today) and Saulson's reply.
• Além do embuste, aquém da qualidade, by Luiz Felipe Estanislau do Amaral (Dicta & Contradicta [Instituto de Formação e Educação, São Paulo], no. 2, December 2008)
• Book review by Ilia Stambler (The European Legacy, vol. 13, no. 6, 2008)
• "Post Hoax, Ergo Propter Hoax", by Michael Bérubé (American Scientist, January-February 2009) See also my brief comments on Bérubé's review.
• "Hoax and reality", by Jerold Touger (New Politics, vol. XII, no. 2, winter 2009)
• Book review by Paul Taylor (The Skeptic (UK), 26 March 2009)
• Book review by Steve Fuller (British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 442-444, September 2009)
• Book review by Derek Lovejoy (Science and Society, January 2010)
• "Posmodernismo, pseudociencias, religión e izquierda política", by Daniel Raventós (Sin Permiso, 21 February 2010) Also available in English translation: "Postmodernism, pseudosciences, religion and the left".
• "The wit and wisdom of transgression", by Nicholas Lezard (The Guardian, 27 February 2010)
• "Sokal, il realismo oltre le beffe", by Armando Massarenti (Il Sole 24 Ore, 4 aprile 2010)
• Book review by Joe Rhodes (Science, Technology, and Human Values, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 435-438, May 2010)
• De la relativité au relativisme, by Etienne Klein (Agenda de la pensée contemporaine, no. 16, printemps 2010)
• Book review by Robert J. Deltete (Philosophy in Review, vol. 30, no. 2, 2010)
• Book review by Rachel Bridgewater (Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Fall 2010)
• Fear of scandalous knowledge: Arguing about coherence in scientific theory and practice, by Emily A. Schultz (Reviews in Anthropology, vol. 39, issue 4, 2010) See also my response to Schultz and her reply to me, published in Reviews in Anthropology, vol. 40, issue 2, 2011.
• Book review by Allan Franklin (Science & Education, vol. 21, issue 3, 2012)

Some books of interest

• Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, by Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt (Johns Hopkins University Press, April 1994, 2nd ed. October 1997). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop.

• Science Wars, edited by Andrew Ross (Duke University Press, November 1996). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop.

• Impostures Intellectuelles, by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont (Éditions Odile Jacob, October 1997). Available at present in French, English, Catalan, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish; other languages forthcoming.

• Défense des sciences humaines: Vers une désokalisation?, by Marc Richelle (Mardaga, January 1998). Available from FNAC.

• A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths about Science, edited by Noretta Koertge (Oxford University Press, August 1998). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop.

• L'affaire Sokal ou la querelle des impostures, by Yves Jeanneret (Presses Universitaires de France, September 1998). Available from FNAC.

• Realismo científico: Una introducción al debate actual en la filosofía de la ciencia, by Antonio Diéguez Lucena (Universidad de Málaga, "Estudios y Ensayos", 1998). This very interesting book is now freely available on-line.

• Impostures scientifiques: Les malentendus de l'affaire Sokal, edited by Baudouin Jurdant (Alliage #35-36, été-automne 1998, co-edition with La Découverte). Available from FNAC.

• Prometheus Bedeviled: Science and the Contradictions of Contemporary Culture, by Norman Levitt (Rutgers University Press, July 1999). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop.

• Prodiges et vertiges de l'analogie: De l'abus des belles-lettres dans la pensée, by Jacques Bouveresse (Éditions Raisons d'Agir, October 1999). Available from FNAC. Available also in Spanish translation (Libros del Zorzal, Buenos Aires, April 2001), with a prologue by Bricmont and myself.

• The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook the Academy, by the editors of Lingua Franca (University of Nebraska Press, September 2000). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop. See also a thoughtful review at The Complete Review

• Apogeo y decadencia de los estudios culturales: Una visión antropológica, by Carlos Reynoso (Gedisa, Barcelona, September 2000).

• After the Science Wars, edited by Keith M. Ashman and Philip S. Baringer (Routledge, January 2001). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop.

• Éthique et épistémologie: Autour du livre "Impostures intellectuelles" de Sokal et Bricmont, edited by Angèle Kremer Marietti (L'Harmattan, February 2001). Available from FNAC.

• The One Culture?: A Conversation about Science, edited by Jay Labinger and Harry Collins (University of Chicago Press, June 2001). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop. This very interesting book contains contributions from sociologists and scientists ("round 1"), comments by contributors on other contributors' articles ("round 2"), and replies to comments ("round 3"). For the contribution by Bricmont and myself to this book, click here.

• Who Rules in Science?: An Opinionated Guide to the Wars, by James Robert Brown (Harvard University Press, December 2001). Available from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Internet Bookshop. Highly recommended: "This book is a lively, engrossing overview of the philosophical and political issues at stake in the current debates about science. Brown doesn't pull any punches in stating his own views, but he always takes care to present fairly even those arguments with which he disagrees. And he's an equal-opportunity debunker: scientists, sociologists and his fellow philosophers all come in for (mostly justified) criticism." See also my review of Who Rules in Science?, published in Science & Society 67, 111-113 (Spring 2003).

• Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India, by Meera Nanda (Rutgers University Press, January 2004). Available from amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Highly recommended: "In this courageous and important book, Meera Nanda shows in dispiriting detail how postmodernist-oriented Indian intellectuals have unwittingly helped pave the way for the rise to power of right-wing Hindu nationalists. A must read for anyone who still doubts that abstract philosophical debates can have real-world consequences." See also the debate on this book in Social Epistemology, January-March 2005, including Nanda's response to her critics.

• Retours sur l'affaire Sokal, edited by Sophie Roux (L'Harmattan, February 2007). Available from FNAC.

• The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby (Pantheon, February 2008). Available from amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

• Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre (Fourth Estate, September 2008, expanded edition April 2009). A scary but light-hearted look at what passes for science reporting in the British media (including the so-called "quality" newspapers) -- along with a straightforward exposition of the tools needed to make everyone a better bullshit detector. Highly recommended. See especially the "missing chapter" that was deleted from the original edition of the book because of the scandalous English libel laws.

• Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients, by Ben Goldacre (Fourth Estate, 2012, published in the U.S. in 2013). An even scarier book about how evidence-based medicine is being perverted and undermined by the pharmaceutical companies --- while government regulators, medical journals and (some) academic doctors not only do nothing but are in fact actively complicit. I knew that things were bad, but before reading this book I didn't realize how bad. The extensive documentation provided in the endnotes will give me a few decades' worth of bedtime reading.

• Faith vs. Fact: Why science and religion are incompatible, by Jerry Coyne (Penguin Books, 2016). See also Coyne's excellent article "Seeing and believing" (New Republic, February 4, 2009).

• L'impossible dialogue: Sciences et religions, by Yves Gingras (Presses Universitaires de France, 2016). Published in English (Science and Religion: An impossible dialogue) by Polity Press in May 2017. Professor Gingras' gripping account of four centuries of conflict between religion and science provides a wonderful antidote to the insistent calls for "dialogue".

• Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity -- And Why This Harms Everybody, by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay (Pitchstone Publishing, August 2020). Highly recommended: "In this important and timely book, Pluckrose and Lindsay trace the intellectual origins of today's Social Justice crusaders. With clear prose and a fair-minded spirit, they argue forcefully that struggles for social justice are strongest when they are founded on respect for evidence, reason, and free and open debate. They deplore the harm that closed-minded Social Justice ideologues are doing to the cause of social justice (lower-case), and they offer practical strategies for doing better." See also my preface to the French edition.

• Cancelled: The Left Way Back from Woke, by Umut Özkirimli (Polity Press, May 2023). See also the panel discussion at the Free Speech Union, London, 13 September 2023, and my own review of the book.

Other useful Web sites on the "Social Text Affair"

• Jason Walsh site NOTE NEW LOCATION!!!
• Gen Kuroki site
• L'affaire Sokal et la presse francophone (bibliographie, en français) NOTE NEW LOCATION!!!
• Vittorio Bertolini site (sito in italiano) NOTE NEW LOCATION!!!
• Jukka-Pekka Takala site (site in Finnish and Scandinavian languages)
• Postmodernism generator (courtesy of Andrew Bulhak, see description and source code)
• Search for commentary in Internet newsgroups

physics.web@nyu.edu / Physics / GSAS / NYU

-- last modified 26 July 2024