Hi Tom,
And the over-compensation is not just in academia .... as I said it's
a kind of political correctness to knock any alterantive science or
knowledge that even whiff's of pseudo-scientific post-modernism. A
kind of knee-jerk.
This thread on Bad Science is worth looking at too ... the original
article, the journalist's response and the discussion thread that
followed.
http://www.badscience.net/?p=284
You appreciate Tom that it's the "over" compensation that winds me up
... no problem with balance - but flipping to opposing extremes helps
none of us.
Ian
On 3/23/07, Tom Milner-Gulland <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This explains the Sokal hoax:
> http://skepdic.com/sokal.html
>
> "In its 1996 Spring/Summer issue (pp. 217-252), Social Text journal
> published an article by Allan Sokal, Professor of Physics at New York
> University, entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative
> Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity." The article was a hoax submitted,
> according to Sokal, to see "would a leading journal of cultural studies
> publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and
> (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions?" It would.
> Needless to say, the editors of Social Text were not pleased."
>
> Apparently when the first talk on the hoax was given by Sokal it was greeted
> by huge cheers at what was seen as this exposure. Be warned. Be careful as
> to how you express yourself in literature that has a philosophical lean
> because, resulting from it, there has been an over-compensation in academia.
>
> Tom
>
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