__/ [ Fritz M ] on Thursday 16 March 2006 22:38 \__
>
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> > [Alan Sokal]
>> I don't know who he is or what this search is intended to demonstrate.
>
> It's along the lines of the random research paper generator you linked
> to. Sokal is a physicist who submitted a paper in 1996 to a postmodern
> cultural studies journal and I believe he was the inspiration for the
> MIT students who created SCIgen. From Wikipedia:
>
> ----
> Sokal called his paper "a pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning
> references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense", which was
> "structured around the silliest quotations I could find about
> mathematics and physics" made by humanities academics.
>
> ...the paper claims the New Age concept of the morphogenetic field
> could be a cutting-edge theory of quantum gravity and concludes that
> since "physical 'reality' ... is at bottom a social and linguistic
> construct", a "liberatory science" and "emancipatory mathematics" must
> be developed that spurn "the elite caste['s] canon of 'high science'"
> for a "postmodern science [that] provide[s] powerful intellectual
> support for the progressive political project".
> ----
Okay, my head hurts now. I'll go grab some coffee and try again. *grin*
Best wishes,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: Florida is bigger than England
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