6 Quotes by Alan Sokal

A mode of thought does not become 'critical' simply by attributing that label to itself, but by virtue of its content.

In this atmosphere of general discouragement, it is tempting to attack something that is sufficiently linked to the powers-that-be so as not to appear very sympathetic, but sufficiently weak to be a more-or-less accessible target (since the concentration of power and money are beyond reach). Science fulfills these conditions, and this partly explains the attacks against it.

And I’m a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them.

A mode of thought does not become ‘critical’ simply by attributing that label to itself, but by virtue of its content.

Why should self-indulgent nonsense – whatever its professed political orientation – be lauded as the height of scholarly achievement?

But why did I do it? I confess that I’m an unabashed Old Leftist who never quite understood how deconstruction was supposed to help the working class. And I’m a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them.