Dear Ali,
I was disapointed to see how swiftly Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker
joined the storm that formed on twitter. (En passant, I would like to
downplay the importance of storms taking place on twitter, which seem to be
as impulsive as they are short-lasting).
To compare Boghossian and Lindsay’s paper to Sokal’s is misleading because
B & L’s paper is ideologically motivated, while Alain Sokal’s was not.
Granted, regardless of the political motivations behind Boghossian’s paper,
the article might still highlight a flaw in both a particular area of study
and predatory publishing practices. However, the authors seem too pleased
with themselves and vastly overstate their case in the conclusions.
In my view, it is worrying that Boghossian’s paper is indistinguishable
from several of the examples that are highlighted, on a daily basis, on the
new peer review twitter account https://twitter.com/realpeerreview. The
account is also openly politically biased, but I would be embarrassed if
papers from my area of study were indistinguishable from parody (there are,
of course, many cases of design research papers that are somewhat overly
relying on self-congratulatory jargon, but jargon is not gibberish.)
More importantly, it worries me that low standards in some areas of study
might provide the ammunition for politically motivated attacks targeting
climate change research for instance (and if the time is ripe for such an
attack it is now.) We must be alert to this.
The main point is that underneath the surface of the twitter storm lies a
political discussion that seems to grow in intensity and stupidity as it
wanes in clarity. Scientists, academics, and reasonable people at large
would do well not to participate in such a low-level discussion (hence my
disappointment with Pinker and Dawkin’s casual participation in the twitter
storm du jour.)
Regarding the left and right divide, scientific research -- regardless of
field of study -- should be neutral. Research is a window to the world,
not a window to the researcher’s particular set of political or moral
beliefs.
'best,
João
--
*João Ferreira*
00351 967089437
0031 0619808750
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