Truth, Knowledge and Social Justice: are these in conflict?

In 1994, physicist Alan Sokal submitted an article ‘Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity’ to the cultural studies journal Social Text, which was accepted and published with some revisions in 1996. Sokal revealed this to be a hoax, deliberately riddled with errors, misrepresentations and more, especially relating to science.

In 2017-18, authors Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, and philosopher Peter Boghossian, similarly submitted a range of hoax articles to peer-reviewed journals, several of which were accepted and some published, including one which was essentially a translation of a chapter of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Both events provoked major debate relating to questions of academic rigour and truth in a postmodern age, and in the second case in particular, the role of critical social justice ideology in this context.

In this debate, Sokal and Pluckrose will speak about these incidents and wider considerations of truth, knowledge and social justice, to be followed by responses on associated issues from three other academics, then an open question and answers session.

Panellists

Alan Sokal, Professor of Mathematics, UCL; Professor Emeritus of Physics, New York University; co-author of Intellectual Impostures: Postmodern Philosophers’ Abuse of Science; author, Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture

Helen Pluckrose, Co-author,  Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity – and Why This Harms Everybody; co-architect of ‘Grievance Studies (“Sokal-Squared”) academic hoax

David Inglis, Professor of Sociology, University of Helsinki; founding editor of the journals Cultural Sociology and Dialogues in Sociology; recent President of the Finnish Sociological Association, author of multiple works on long-term social change.

Ian Pace, Professor of Music, Culture and Society, City, University of London; pianist and musicologist, writer for The Critic, Times Higher, The Spectator; co-founder, City University Academics for Academic Freedom, London Universities’ Council for Academic Freedom

Ronan Palen, Professor of International Politics, City, University of London; co-author, Legacies of Empire; Globalizing Economic Regimes and Institutions; Transcending the state-global divide

Chair: Chris Rojek, Professor of Sociology and Head of Department of Sociology and Criminology, City, University of London; former Publisher in Sociology, SAGE and Senior Editor in Sociology, Routledge; author, Presumed Intimacy: Parasocial Interaction in Media, Society; The Paradox of Celebrity; co-author, Cults.