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Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture

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Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture

In 1996, Alan Sokal, a Professor of Physics at New York University, wrote a paper for the cultural-studies journal Social Text, entitled 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity'. It was reviewed, accepted and published. Sokal immediately confessed that the whole article was a hoax - a cunningly worded paper designed to expose and parody the style of extreme postmodernist criticism of science. The story
became front-page news around the world and triggered fierce and wide-ranging controversy.

Sokal is one of the most powerful voices in the continuing debate about the status of evidence-based knowledge. In Beyond the Hoax he turns his attention to a new set of targets - pseudo-science, religion, and misinformation in public life. 'Whether my targets are the postmodernists of the left, the fundamentalists of the right, or the muddle-headed of all political and apolitical stripes, the bottom line is that clear thinking, combined with a respect for evidence, are of the utmost
importance to the survival of the human race in the twenty-first century.' The book also includes a hugely illuminating annotated text of the Hoax itself, and a reflection on the furore it provoked.

Country	USA
Author	Alan Sokal
Binding	Kindle Edition
Edition	1
EISBN	9780191623349
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	OUP Oxford
Manufacturer	OUP Oxford
NumberOfPages	489
PublicationDate	2010-02-11
Publisher	OUP Oxford
ReleaseDate	2010-02-11
Studio	OUP Oxford

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