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Alan David Sokal (born 1955) is a professor of mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
 at University College London
University College London

University College London is a university institution and constituent college of the University of London based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom....
 and professor of physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 at New York University
New York University

New York University is a private university, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan....
. He works in statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics

Statistical mechanics is the application of probability theory, which includes Mathematics tools for dealing with large populations, to the field of mechanics, which is concerned with the motion of particles or objects when subjected to a force....
 and combinatorics
Combinatorics

Combinatorics is a branch of pure mathematics concerning the study of Countable set objects. It is related to many other areas of mathematics, such as algebra, probability theory, ergodic theory and geometry, as well as to applied subjects in computer science and statistical physics....
. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism
Postmodernism

Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives....
, resulting in the Sokal affair
Sokal Affair

The Sokal affair was a hoax by physics Alan Sokal perpetrated on the editorial staff and readership of the postmodern cultural studies journal Social Text ....
 in 1996.

l got his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 from Princeton University
Princeton University

Princeton University is a private university university located in Princeton, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and has the largest per-student Financial endowment in the world....
 in 1981. He was advised by Arthur Wightman
Arthur Wightman

Arthur Strong Wightman is an United States mathematical physicist. He is one of the founders of quantum field theory, and originated the set of Wightman axioms....
. Sokal taught mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua
National Autonomous University of Nicaragua

The National Autonomous University of Nicaragua is the principal state-funded public university of Nicaragua.Its main campus is located in Managua....
 in the summers of 1986-1988, during the rule of the Sandinistas.

Research interest
Sokal’s research lies in mathematical physics and combinatorics.






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Alan David Sokal (born 1955) is a professor of mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
 at University College London
University College London

University College London is a university institution and constituent college of the University of London based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom....
 and professor of physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 at New York University
New York University

New York University is a private university, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan....
. He works in statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics

Statistical mechanics is the application of probability theory, which includes Mathematics tools for dealing with large populations, to the field of mechanics, which is concerned with the motion of particles or objects when subjected to a force....
 and combinatorics
Combinatorics

Combinatorics is a branch of pure mathematics concerning the study of Countable set objects. It is related to many other areas of mathematics, such as algebra, probability theory, ergodic theory and geometry, as well as to applied subjects in computer science and statistical physics....
. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism
Postmodernism

Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement'. While "modern" itself refers to something "related to the present", the movement of modernism and the following reaction of postmodernism are defined by a set of perspectives....
, resulting in the Sokal affair
Sokal Affair

The Sokal affair was a hoax by physics Alan Sokal perpetrated on the editorial staff and readership of the postmodern cultural studies journal Social Text ....
 in 1996.

Academic career

Sokal got his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 from Princeton University
Princeton University

Princeton University is a private university university located in Princeton, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and has the largest per-student Financial endowment in the world....
 in 1981. He was advised by Arthur Wightman
Arthur Wightman

Arthur Strong Wightman is an United States mathematical physicist. He is one of the founders of quantum field theory, and originated the set of Wightman axioms....
. Sokal taught mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua
National Autonomous University of Nicaragua

The National Autonomous University of Nicaragua is the principal state-funded public university of Nicaragua.Its main campus is located in Managua....
 in the summers of 1986-1988, during the rule of the Sandinistas.

Research interest


Sokal’s research lies in mathematical physics and combinatorics. In particular, he studies the interplay between these fields based on questions arising in statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. This includes work on the chromatic polynomial
Chromatic polynomial

The chromatic polynomial is a polynomial studied in algebraic graph theory, a branch of mathematics. It counts the number of graph colorings as a function of the number of colors and was originally defined by George David Birkhoff to attack the four color problem....
 and the Tutte polynomial
Tutte polynomial

The Tutte polynomial, also called the dichromate or the Tutte-Whitney polynomial, is a polynomial in two variables which plays an important role in graph theory, a branch of mathematics and theoretical computer science....
, which appear both in algebraic graph theory
Algebraic graph theory

Algebraic graph theory is a branch of mathematics in which algebra methods are applied to problems about Graph .In one sense, algebraic graph theory studies graphs in connection with linear algebra....
 and in the study of to phase transition
Phase transition

In thermodynamics, a phase transition is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase to another.At phase-transition point, physical properties may undergo abrupt change- for instance, volume of the two phases may be vastly different....
s in statistical mechanics. His interests include computational physics
Computational physics

Computational physics is the study and implementation of numerical algorithms in order to solve problems in physics for which a quantitative theory already exists....
 and algorithms, such as Markov chain Monte Carlo
Markov chain Monte Carlo

Markov chain Monte Carlo method methods , are a class of algorithms for sampling from probability distributions based on constructing a Markov chain that has the desired distribution as its Markov chain#Steady-state_analysis_and_limiting_distributions....
 algorithms for problems in statistical physics.

Sokal affair

Sokal is best known to the general public for the Sokal Affair
Sokal Affair

The Sokal affair was a hoax by physics Alan Sokal perpetrated on the editorial staff and readership of the postmodern cultural studies journal Social Text ....
 of 1996. Curious to see whether the then-non-peer-reviewed postmodern cultural studies
Cultural studies

Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines political economy, communication, sociology, social theory, literary theory, Media influence, film theory, cultural anthropology, philosophy, museum studies and art history/art criticism to study culture phenomena in various societies....
 journal Social Text
Social Text

Social Text is a Postmodernism cultural studies journal published by Duke University Press.The journal gained notoriety in 1996 for the so-called Sokal Affair when it published an article by the physicist Alan Sokal entitled ""....
 (published by Duke University Press
Duke University Press

Duke University Press is a book publisher and a part of Duke University. The Press is perhaps best known for its publications in cultural and literary studies....
) would publish a submission which "flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions," Sokal submitted for publication a grand-sounding but completely nonsensical paper entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity."

The journal did publish it, and Sokal then revealed the hoax
Hoax

A hoax is a deliberate attempt to dupe, deceive or deception an audience into believing, or accepting, that something is real, when in fact it is not; or that something is true, when in fact it is false....
 in the journal Lingua Franca, arguing that the left and social science would be better served by intellectual underpinnings based on reason
Reason

Reason may refer to Mind#Mental faculties that consciously create explanations in order to judge, decide, solve problems, generalize, and give examples, among other activities....
. He replied to leftist and postmodernist criticism of the deception by saying that his motivation had been to "defend the Left
Left-wing politics

In politics, left-wing, leftist, and the Left are terms applied to Social progressivism and Egalitarianism positions. Originally, during the French Revolution, left-wing referred to seating arrangements in parliament; those who sat on the left opposed the monarchy and supported Political radicalism reform....
 from a trendy segment of itself."

The affair, together with Paul R. Gross
Paul R. Gross

Paul R. Gross is a biologist and author, perhaps best known to the general public for Higher Superstition , written with Norman Levitt. Gross is the University Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Virginia; he previously served the university as Provost and Vice-President....
 and Norman Levitt
Norman Levitt

Norman Jay Levitt is a mathematician at Rutgers University. He received a PhD from Princeton University in 1967....
's book Higher Superstition, can be considered to be the beginnings of the so-called Science wars
Science wars

The science wars were a series of intellectual battles in the 1990s between "Postmodernism" and "Scientific realism" about the nature of scientific theories....
.

Sokal followed up by co-authoring the book Impostures Intellectuelles with Jean Bricmont
Jean Bricmont

Jean Bricmont is a Belgium theoretical physics, Philosophy of science and a professor at the Universit? catholique de Louvain. He works on renormalization group and nonlinear differential equations....
 in 1997 (published in English, a year later, as Fashionable Nonsense
Fashionable Nonsense

Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science is a book by professors Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont. Sokal is best known for the Sokal Affair, in which he submitted a deliberately absurd article to Social Text, a critical theory journal, and was able to get it published....
). The book accuses other academics of using scientific and mathematical terms incorrectly and criticizes proponents of the strong program for denying the value of truth. The book had mixed reviews, with some lauding the effort, some more reserved, and others pointing out alleged inconsistencies and criticizing the authors for ignorance of the fields under attack and taking passages out of context.

In 2008, Sokal revisited the Sokal affair and its implications in Beyond the Hoax
Beyond the Hoax

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 Social Text, a critical theory journal, and was able to get it published....
.

Quotes

  • But why did I do it? I confess that I'm an unabashed Old Leftist who never quite understood how deconstruction was supposed to help the working class. And I'm a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them.
  • Anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social conventions is invited to try transgressing those conventions from the windows of my apartment. (I live on the twenty-first floor.)
  • If this guy is an element of this guy, and this guy is an element of this guy, than this guy is a subset of this guy*


See also


  • Cargo cult science
    Cargo cult science

    Cargo cult science is a term used by Richard Feynman in his 1974 Caltech commencement address to describe work that has the semblance of being Scientific method, but is missing "a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty"....
  • Fashionable Nonsense
    Fashionable Nonsense

    Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science is a book by professors Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont. Sokal is best known for the Sokal Affair, in which he submitted a deliberately absurd article to Social Text, a critical theory journal, and was able to get it published....
  • Beyond the Hoax
    Beyond the Hoax

    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 Social Text, a critical theory journal, and was able to get it published....


External links