Alan Sokal speaking in Stockholm

A speech recorded by Henrik Thomé in Stockholm May 2009.
Alan David Sokal is a professor of mathematics at University College London and professor of physics at New York University. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism, resulting in the Sokal affair in 1996.

[@AposineYT]

Alan! We need you back in Sweden quick, the postmodernists are going rampant!!

[@conormurphy9482]

You do realize Sokal is an old time lefty, right? He is closer to a Marxist than a postmodernist.

[@flippyflopper2360]

^ Probably meant to say cultural marxists.

[@C_R_O_M________]

He can't be a Marxist as we write for Marxism has been debunked even since the times of Von Bawerk's criticism and furthermore from the opposite results in the real world.

[@conormurphy9482]

@American Fuel TV Alan Sokal had old school left politics. Class struggle politics, definitely some influence from Marxism.

[@conormurphy9482]

@American Fuel TV Dude he went and helped the Sandinista government.

[@jpbrindamour5467]

Beautiful exposition which will be ignored in a post truth hysterical world.

[@vishwaneedam]

sociology* Born in conservatism Fall in love with marxism Marry with postmodernism ----got divorce---- Looking for an "ism" i don't know weather alan sokal can be a new lover of sociology or not , but i really appreciate his quest of new knowledge . All the best Sokal . ~praxist

[@please.stop.coping]

Modernism/Meta-modernism perhaps is what you'rpe looking for. To make it more complicated, objective meritocratic structuralism. To make it political, neoliberalism.

[@Naturalist1979]

Thanks for uploading, Henrik Thomé.

[@axe863]

Quantum gravity is a social and linguistic construct.

[@vivvpprof]

Yea, just as mathematics is a tool for oppression of poor humanists…

[@axe863]

HeyGuy4321 Gravity is a shill for Big Data.

[@axe863]

HeyGuy4321 911 was orchestrated by the smoothing spline industrial complex.

[@S2Cents]

axe863 gravity + the earth can deconstruct your body

[@harrymills2770]

"Quantum" anything, in my opinion, is just an admission by science of how small we can get in th observations. We can't "see" electrons or other subatomic particles, so we resort to statistical methods. And once we're in that realm, we DO see a number of convenient constructs, such as the bell curve. Trying to reason from a large population to individuals gives rise (again in my opinion) to some wacky stuff, which we carry along, because it helps us make predictions. But it also opens up a lot of fallacies intrinsic in the statistical models, for instance, modeling the weight of a mouse with the bell curve (Normal distribution) includes a positive, but vanishingly small probability of a 3-ton mouse, somewhere, which we know is ridiculous, even though the model is helpful to us in describing the weight of most mice, within a couple standard deviations of the mean.

[@dreammjpr]

For over 20 years Alan fought against superstition being a valid argument for solutions. I wonder what happened that, 11 years on, superstition and other modes of magical thinking have become the modus operandi of popular voices on social media? Humanity seems to find it’s dark ages at the end of every technological renaissance.

[@artandculture5262]

Materialism doesn’t correspond to all matters of humanness.

[@KibyNykraft]

@@artandculture5262 Sounds like a commonplace strawman of the types that come from religious goofs (especially christians) and many leftwingers. Read Beyond the hoax. What do you mean by "materialism"? The skeptically *scientific* definition of matter (in real physics, in other words classical lab physics and practical+innovation engineering) is very broad within what is possible to study methodically (from photons to atoms). Matter is everything else than its necessary background (space) (no variety nor locality may occur if there was no literal space). Science as a method has no bias to what form of matter is detectable or not. To say that there is something metaphysical (an oxymoron) relevant for the human evaluation of nature is just very uneducated. To claim that the Cosmos care about the human ego's internal rants and superstitions in speculative fashions will be very unrealistic. If ending up with physics being only theoretical ,asking a hypothesis abstractingly and answering it abstractly, we no more have physics as a scientific activity but as a part of the general postmodernist decay of culture.

[@Gazzar]

Happily the NHS in the UK stopped using homeopathy in 2017 and now states on it's website that there is no evidence that homeopathy is an effective treatment for any known condition. Small victories.

[@MarcinP2]

A trip to the memory lane when the greatest danger to science were religious groups.

[@sassy6292]

It still is because this new social justice movement is being driven by the religion gene and so is just as dangerous and visious.

[@jamesnoon6648]

Regarding his comments about the English libel laws at 30:11, Mr. Sokal should be warned that according to the scurrilous magazine 'Private Eye' there is a saying amongst libel lawyers in the UK 'The greater the truth, the greater the libel.'

[@zo1dberg]

Pretty sure the cameraman should've zoomed in closer.

[@haripatel2586]

my Lecturer at UCL. What a legend!

[@NearEarthAsteroid]

"Faith is not in fact a rejection of reason but simply a lazy acceptance of bad reasons" 👍👍👍

[@KibyNykraft]

In a very large picture one could perhaps say that postmodernism and religions are easily grouped in one basket with different compartments ; everything in the basket is the absence of Reason or/and the childish envy against quality/moral objectivism /intellect.

[@tuyetluong8283]

Thanks for posting but the Q and A would have been good as well.

[@Appleblade]

WTF? He's speaking in a dorm room?

[@modvs1]

Isn’t the notion of ‘latent vs. manifest’ a sociological one? The manifest function here would be to get a grip on what reality is and does and to have that adequately communicated amongst ones interlocutors. The latent function is to reap the residual (perlocutionary/interpersonal) social benefits- to get along with this peer (camp/group), make each other feel good, solidarity, trust, inclusion, etc.; or the opposite -to antagonise, show defiance, annoy, exclusion, etc., tenure, grants, publishing notoriety and so on. Isn’t this phenomenon is ubiquitous? We’re all guilty of using a pretence to (or assumption of) reality tracking as a way (mode) of subserving social interaction on a quotidian basis: conversations involving putative topics, news, anecdotes, fables, hot and cold gossip, rumour/hearsay, jokes/comedy, conspiracy, propaganda, errant or extreme values, myths, superstition, religion, mysticism, spirituality, misconception, bigotry, ignorance, white lies, sub cultural norms…, much of what counts as philosophy, etc. It’s a group based (pragmatic) strategy that gets you access to all the latent goodies that come with being socially hooked up with people who are supposedly ‘on the same page’ and separated from those that aren’t.

[@petersmythe6462]

"A more diverse school system" Wow, is Britain good enough that creationists are considered "diverse?"

[@kkallebb]

Great presentation. I am a big fan of Sokal, but his discussion of religious faith leaves something to be desired, theologically. For instance, in Christianity, faith is not primarily based on the authority of the scriptures declaring their own reliability, but on the authority of Christ (of whom the scriptures are merely the record, or "witness"). The question then becomes not primarily why one considers the scriptures authoritative, but why one regards Christ as authoritative. It is only at this point that the question arises, as to whether or not the scriptures are a reliable account of Christ, and this question is usually addressed by various kinds of evidence both internal to scripture (questions of coherence, for instance), and external (ie. historical, philosophical, etc). So it is not the case that the "authority" of the scriptures is based on the circular argument that the scriptures are reliable because the scriptures themselves claim to be, nor is it the case that Christianity is considered "true" merely because the scriptures say it is.

[@Naturalist1979]

I love this guy.

[@DEWwords]

Wonderful. Wonderful wonderful!

[@snowman72891]

sokal is awesome

[@boptillyouflop]

Devise an experiment that disproves the theory of relativity and you'll probably win the Nobel prize.

[@stevelundgren2938]

When something is called a theory, it is already unproven, thus in a disproved state. I guess Relativity is a superstition, like "religion". (requires faith) That was an easily won Nobel Prize.

[@manx306]

@@stevelundgren2938 "unproven" and "disproven" are not synonyms

[@kumarmangalampatravali660]

Excellent!

[@Kurtlane]

It's nothing short of amazing that the nonsense spouted by post-modernists could not be defeated just for being nonsense in and of itself, or when leftists used it for their purposes, but was defeated when right-wingewrs did the same. If this is not triumph of politics over most basic human intelligence (never mind science), I don't know what is. (cont.)

[@axe863]

I thought Sokal would be more of a boss. I would have done it for equal parts scientific rationalism and the lolz. Why is there a corded phone in 2009?

[@bygabop9368]

They were made to last over centuries!

[@KeithMakank3]

@08:50 Scientists do as well, their whole history is this practice as well. The post modernist comment is that science always proceeds from out of this though it solves this problem, it never does. Always falls victim to its own elitism and religiousness over and over again.

[@tonygoodfellow4937]

I don't understand how the Ervin Laszlo can address the United Nations NEXUS Summit instead of Sokal. Considering how Sokal offers clarity of thought and Laszlo: a bunch of bull shit.

[@sgt7]

...and the feminist in the room furtively moves to the nearest exit.

[@Mariajbh2]

We have here a misogynist. Aren't you ashamed to openly say who you are? I am a researcher in geopolitical sciences, and the power groups that dominate the world and have invented all this postmodern garbage are men, and their abuses are always first against women and then against the lower and middle class. But you men continue to make yourself victims of your abuse like all abusers do... Machism is a supremacist thought like Nazism and fascism. They are ridiculous narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths

[@gamerknown]

14:32: good hemlock joke, shame it didn't any play! Fuck Crito though, among the most absurdly totalitarian thoughts expressed on paper

[@TrenCow]

“Global warming" is not an bull

[@criss5405]

Climate on earth is changing since beginnings, the issue is if it's caused by man, and how much change is too much. We need to develop further science to deal with the problems. Maybe you want to live as in prehistoric times without any technology. I don't!

[@caseyjoanz]

Not an bull? How about this: just as fracking is known to be correlated with increased earthquakes, as CO2 levels increase and free oxygen levels decrease our global temperatures rise. As both polar circles have a retreat of their ice mass, oceans levels rise. Now, all Good Americans know that Jesus will never let it hurt us, but if you're some Pakistani packing fudge with your Cub Scout boys...you might be speaking Eskimo in five years.

[@RonJohn63]

12:14 trepanation: boring a hole in the skull to let out evil spirits. 28:19 Dr. Sokal conveniently forgot about the _Iraq Liberation Act of 1998_ which Bill Clinton signed into law. *"It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq".* 37:09 Environmental factors most certainly affect gene expression, and what gets inherited.

[@stevepa999]

Can someone give one credible skeptic climatologists who uses Postmodernist logic to justify his position. All of them use the scientific method of reason and facts.

[@MrBoullu]

Ce virtuose du Logos :bave:

[@youdodat2]

OMG. Global Warming?

[@MatthewsPersonal]

Sokal's naiveté here is certainly not his fault. He was a product of his time. Scientists were being pushed more and more into the spotlight of science communication by the massive religion debate happening in America at the time. Having been a tussle called into action by the religion movement, he failed to notice the actual extent of the threat posed by the post modernist rot in academia. The evangelist movement certainly had a lot of threat, people's children could be brainwashed into believing all sorts of ridiculous things under a religious culture. But he failed to see that the same thing could happen with the massive university push wherein, post moderdinists got to raise the next generation of highly vocal, highly skilled kids. The feared massive cultural backlash against science by religious folks instead came from the post modernists. Who aren't necessarily anti-science as they are pro bad science. Nowadays, I can quite firmly say that the post modernists are the largest threat by far. Next would be the conspiracy minded, and finally would be the religious.

[@Mariajbh2]

I am a researcher in geopolitical sciences. What does "conspiracy mentality" mean to you? You have believed all the propaganda. The term "conspiracionist" was invented by the CIA to discredit and try to make them look crazy those who dared to question the assassination of JFK. When the media attacks certain people as "conspiracionists" or "conspiracy theorists" it is to disavow them because they are telling truths about the system. You have believed all the lies

[@timeisabsolute]

Clear thinking and respect for evidence must lead to the immediate rejection of the so-called Einstein's "theory" of relativity (cf. watch?v=mhG3R66wFpg). Ridding science from that travesty of science is what Sokal must consider first before launching his attacks on obvious derivative nonsense in the so-called social sciences.

[@katakhresis2796]

Sokal is either an idiotic simpleton or a disingenuous ideologue because his basic premiss is that kultur = reality so he winds up conflating them for the purposes of his campaign. Postmodernism is simply questioning that premiss by laying bare the inherent contradictions of Kultur and the various mythologies it has spawned. It's not attacking scientific method or clarity of exposition. Julia Kristeva is writing about the manipulation of arbitrary signs by which people misrepresent reality. He either resents this or doesn't understand the project, or possibly both.

[@teetsanbeer]

Kata Khresis, yeah and the stupid is Alan Sokal...

[@ans9434]

:)

[@neoseyes]

He believes in God

[@OOOHerraint]

really?

[@neoseyes]

@@OOOHerraint Everyone does

[@Mariajbh2]

​@@neoseyesNot at all. Not everyone is like you

[@timeisabsolute]

No need to devise such experiment because said "theory" disproves itself. For instance, the "theory" in question derives that 1 = 2 which is stupidity. Einstein's "theory" of relativity is stupid, leads to obviously stupid conclusions which deserve no further attention let alone devising experiments.