Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

It was a delightful episode. For nearly two generations, the philosophical French Pox had suffused through North American universities. "Postmodernism" created artificial new disciplines, set a still unmatched standard for obfuscation, and lambasted science whenever its practitioners found the opportunity. Being busy with other things, researchers had little time to respond with more than a sad shaking of the head. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, physicist Alan Sokal [who?] produced an article on quantum gravity, drafted in the best elusive "pomo" style and publised it in a leading postmodernist journal, Social Text.

It was a hoax. Beautifully conceived and wonderfully executed, Sokal's article demonstrated to all what a different kind of hoax had been perpetrated on North American education. In this lively recapitulation of the episode, Sokal uses the article - with updating comments - to explain his motives and to expand on them with additional essays. The original is reprinted with Sokal's commentary on what spoofs, solopsisms, outright flattery of Socal Text's editors and purposeful scientific errors even a first-year physics student would question. Obviously, none of that mattered, since the syntax was so clearly in a form those editors cherished, the "peer reviewers" overlooked or were ignorant of, the gaffes. Besides a scientist writing for a journal long known to criticise science. He was one of their own!

Revelation of the parody in another pomo journal brought much glee to the scientific community, among others, but the project failed in one significant regard. The pomo movement did not wither away - indeed many of its adherents still occupy university chairs. "Truth" is still being equated with "belief" and objective facts are readily dismissed for unverifiable alternatives and "feelings" accepted more than data. The following essays demonstrate that illogical thinking, rejection of the scientific method did not diminish and pseudoscience is actually on the rise. In one truly frightening essay, Sokal describes the psuedoscience that is permeating the North American nursing profession. Deemed - among other terms - "Therapeutic Touch", its practioners claim certain healing skills by not "touching" at all! Although the practice was exposed by an 11-year-old girl at a science fair, classes in the technique are given in at least 80 college and university schools across North America, with an equal number of hospitals sponsoring its use.

As he notes, Sokal's original - and ongoing - aim is to protect students from falling prey to the mass of false or misleading claims about science, about the finding and use of evidence, about the evils of "credential-mongering" and to encourage critical thinking generally. He provides numerous examples, even ranging so far afield as an examination of the rise of postmodernism in India. There, the attacks on science seen in the West have expanded and intensified in Vedic Hinduism, a movement wrapped in anti-colonialist nationalism and ethno-centrism. Social commentators Meera Nanda and Vandana Shiva - oft-cited by Western relativist academics, are shown as Asian heirs to the French tradition. Both call for "alternative sciences", which remain poorly formulated.

This discussion of a religiously-based rejection of objective science is a proper lead to his final chapter, "Religion, Politics and Survival". If there is one area where "evidence" is discounted and even avoided, it is in the promulgation of religion. For Sokal, the issue goes well beyond simple personal considerations because making decisions without assessing valid information distorts how we make choices. Evidence, he argues, must come first, whether in social situations, politics or even buying an auto. "Faith", he says, "is not a rejection of reason, but the lazy acceptance of bad reasons". Using Sam Harris' "End of Faith" and Rabbi Michael Lerner's "Spirit Matters", the author closely examines the books and the questions they raise. Among these is the attitude of his countrymen at election time. "Moral values" was the highest rated reason given for making a choice in the 2004 presidential election - with the term being a code-word for opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Given that most people have no real idea what is involved in such situations, Sokal argues that decisions based on deluded sources are flawed. Ethical ideas can be assessed in secular terms and that's an idea he wishes extended.

Although this book may seem dated to the uninitiated - we don't encounter the term "postmodern" as much as we used to, the basic philosophy remains widespread. By eschewing realistic foundations for our patterns of living, we may be heading into a pre-Enlightenment version of modern society. Should anybody wish this sort of regression, they are free to try it outside a society where the powers available are kept out of harm's way. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Ever since his 1996 spoof of postmodernism appeared in "Social Text," a pretentious journal I no longer find in stores, Alan Sokal has been at pains to show that science gives us a sound basis for belief. He is well-qualified to do it. Sokal is Professor of Physics at New York University and of Mathematics at University College London. He is literate, erudite and well-informed. Certainly his views are likely to provoke splenetic responses from those who have found fame and fortune in the relatively arid realm of post-modernism and the various endeavors to extend it far beyond what it warrants. It is easy to leap from the bona fide points philosophers like Derrida and Foucault have made to silly inferences such as that there is no objective reality, as if everything we perceive is filtered through ideological lenses. The point is that we can measure things, we do get airplanes off the ground and send space probes to distant planets, and so we can believe not only in Newtonian but also Einsteinian Physics. Evolution, moreover, is now solidly supported not only by an amazing array of fossils but by the irrefutable evidence supplied by embryology and DNA.

Alas, trendy (and often shallow) social commentary overlooks or denies this, sometimes with mischievous consequences. But as Einstein said, "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

Part of the problem Sokal identifies and combats is that the extension of postmodern skepticism into the scientific realm has become the project of right-wing interests that have reason to be opposed to science, as in trying to deny the fact that we face serious consequences from global climate change, or seeking to promote what is known as "alternative" medicine. Sokal also takes up history and religion as areas where postmodernism has been invoked to challenge reality as an intellectual construct. His conclusions will not be warmly received by those who profit from alternative medicine any more than T.H. Huxley's efforts to debunk spiritualism were received by those who sought to exploit people's vulnerability in the face of loss. But at least since Francis Bacon, we have had the tools to begin to make the universe comprehensible. That should neither surprise nor alarm anyone. From the first time a baby sees or touches, he begins to apprehend the world around him.

This is a very fine book. Sokal is meticulous and thoroughly logical. His points are closely argued and exceedingly well documented. Further, it is a handsome volume at a reasonable price. It makes a major contribution to the ongoing debate about the usefulness and reliability of modern science. It deserves a wide readership.

I had never read anything by Alan Sokal prior to Beyond The Hoax, having only heard the name through an essay by another physicist, Steven Weinberg. But I am glad I read this book. Sokal is a brilliant man and a very good writer. Sokal's mission in Beyond The Hoax is simple: combat bad ideas from whatever source they arrive. He takes on a number of targets in this book: postmodernists, religious fundamentalists, pseudoscience advocates, fellow scientists such as Sam Harris , progressive leftists like Michael Lerner, among others. In my opinion, he succeeds (for the most part) with razor-sharp logic. This is a book that any science enthusiast will want to read.