Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science

In 1996 physicist Alan Sokal published an essay in Social Text--an
influential academic journal of cultural studies--touting the deep
similarities between quantum gravitational theory and postmodern
philosophy.
Soon thereafter, the essay was revealed
as a brilliant parody, a catalog of nonsense written in the
cutting-edge but impenetrable lingo of postmodern theorists. The event
sparked a furious debate in academic circles and made the headlines of
newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.
In Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science,
Sokal and his fellow physicist Jean Bricmont expand from where the hoax
left off. In a delightfully witty and clear voice, the two thoughtfully
and thoroughly dismantle the pseudo-scientific writings of some of the
most fashionable French and American intellectuals. More generally, they
challenge the widespread notion that scientific theories are mere
"narrations" or social constructions.