Another kind of Gulf

摘要

A recent book by Sokal and Bricmont (1998) has shown just how great the gulf is between science and some areas of the social sciences by giving numerous examples of the use of mathematics and physics to justify nonsensical conclusions. The first author of this book is the physicist who famously wrote a spoof article which was published in a 'literary' journal, the article being full of meaningless but politically correct jargon, not to mention completely daft science, which caused it to be taken seriously by its editors, and presumably by its readers. For a very concise and amusing precis of this tale see a review of the book by Dawkins (1998). A major point is that authors of a lot of hot air have for some time been borrowing from sound science to make their own points and justify their own views (whatever they are), and that the gulf between some different subjects, far from being narrow as some might suggest or hope, is probably wider now than it ever has been.