It was twenty years ago today . . . since the publication of Alvin Goldman’s classic of sorts, a work that inspired myself and my chum, Chris Onof — and later with Alvin’s help — to set up EPISTEME. The Sokal hoax was another motivating factor. Alan SokalAlvin Goldmanchris onofEPISTEMEEpistemologysocial epistemologySokal Hoax
It’s the IYIs (technically speaking “bureaucrapic fuckwits”) who are deeming what is and what is not bona fide scientific knowledge — the decision handed down is seemingly an instance of an ignoratio elenchi. Some of the toughest-minded criticism of this generalized line of wooly thinking has surprisingly emanated from Canada in the form of James Robert Brown and André…
Peter Boghossian and James A. Lindsay perpetrate a Sokal-style hoax on gender studies. Alan SokalgenderJames LindsayMichael ShermerPeter Bogdanovichpost modernismregressive leftrelativismsocial constructivismSokal Hoax
Dennett plugging his latest From Bacteria to Bach and Back. I’m with Dennett on this deeper analysis of where we are at just now and have been very concerned about this since Sokal. It was one of the primary motivations for my setting up EPISTEME. The problem, going back at least 30 years, has been that…
Right now there are only two Canadian academics with the requisite scientific, philosophical, literary and historical literacy that have stepped up to the plate publicly for TEAM TRUTH (there are others but understandably they are less reticent). One leading light is Gad Saad whose praises I’ve sung in previous posts; the second is Jordan Peterson who has recently been forced into…
Alan Sokal weighs in again thanks to Nick Brown who was troubled by the conclusion that The mysteries of love, happiness, fulfilment, success, disappointment, heartache, failure, experience, random luck, environment, culture, gender, genes, and all the other myriad ingredients that make up a human life could be reduced to the figure of 2.9013. It’s quite astonishing…
