Alan Sokal's Hoax and A. Lunn's Theory of Quantum Mechanics

Shu‐Kun Lin

H. J. Groenewold

Ronald McKinney, Symposium

In the first section of my paper, I want to consider the “paradoxes of complementarity” between polarised notions such as the quantum concepts of “wave” and “particle.” I will argue that if we treat this topic with all the “gravity” it deserves, we will be able to understand once and for all why this debate (and others like it) can never be completely resolved (paradox intended). In the second section, I want to consider the notion of “parody.” At the end, astute readers must determine for themselves whether I can be trusted to mean what I say, or whether this is all merely ironic, a post-modern hoax, one that undercuts the very boundaries it installs.

Hilbrand Johannes Groenewold

Peter J. Riggs

Christopher Norris

For Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont this is symptomatic of a widespread intellectual malaise that also goes under the various names of 'post-structuralism', 'literary theory', 'cultural criticism', 'deconstruction', or – on somewhat different but related grounds – the 'strong programme' in sociology of knowledge. The repercussions are rumbling on in various quarters of scientific and literary-cultural academe. They have also provoked a stream of commentary in the up-market dailies and weeklies where the 'Sokal Affair has become a main focus for debate about the current 'Science Wars, themselves basically just another outbreak of the old 'Two Cultures controversy initiated by C.P. Snow in the early 1960s. The trouble is that a great deal of quantum-theoretical debate — including some by eminent physicists — has likewise 'gone overboard' in various speculative directions, beginning with Bohr's obscurely metaphysical thoughts on the topic and continuing with the kinds of argument advanced by adherents of the 'many-minds' and 'many-worlds' interpretations.