Alan Sokal speaking in Stockholm

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

Thanks for uploading, Henrik Thomé.

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

Quantum gravity is a social and linguistic construct. 

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.

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

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

Pretty sure the cameraman should've zoomed in closer.

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.'

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.

my Lecturer at UCL. What a legend!

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

WTF? He's speaking in a dorm room?

Excellent!

I love this guy.

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.

Wonderful. Wonderful wonderful!

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

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

sokal is awesome