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The article contains a number of statements that Sokal himself proudly observed were "a pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense". At one stage he asserts that 'physical reality is at bottom nothing more than a social and linguistic construct', and at another he proposes that the New Age concept of the morphogenetic field actually constitutes a "cutting edge theory of quantum gravity". A particularly noteworthy nonsensical statement is to be found in Sokal's proposition that "the axiom of equality in mathematical set theory is analogous to the homonymous concept in feminist politics." |
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The article contains a number of statements that Sokal stated were "a pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense". At one stage he asserts that "physical reality is at bottom nothing more than a social and linguistic construct", and at another he proposes that the New Age concept of the morphogenetic field actually constitutes a "cutting edge theory of quantum gravity". As further evidence of deliberate fabrications, Sokal also cited his proposition that "the axiom of equality in mathematical set theory is analogous to the homonymous concept in feminist politics." |
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Sokal claimed that he brought attention to his banal contentions (and some others, such as the statement that mathematics has "nineteenth-century liberal origins" and that the gravitational constant of Newton is mired in "ineluctable historicity") in an effort to illustrate that some academics will gladly trade intellectual rigour for "what sounds good", and he observed that the editors of Social Text "felt comfortable publishing an article on quantum physics without bothering to consult anyone knowledgeable in the subject." |
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Sokal claimed that he brought attention to his banal contentions (and some others, such as the statement that mathematics has "nineteenth-century liberal origins" and that the gravitational constant of Newton is mired in "ineluctable historicity") in an effort to illustrate that some academics will gladly trade intellectual rigour for "what sounds good". He observed that the editors of Social Text "felt comfortable publishing an article on quantum physics without bothering to consult anyone knowledgeable in the subject." |
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See also: False document |
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See also: Hoax?, False document, Quantum gravity |
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