Intellectual Impostures

When Intellectual Impostures was published in France, it sent shock waves through the Left Bank establishment. When it was published in Britain, it provoked impassioned debate. Sokal and Bricmont examine the canon of French postmodernists - Lacan, Kristeva, Baudrillard, Irigaray, Latour, Virilio, Deleuze and Guattari - and systematically expose their abuse of science. This edition contains a new preface analysing the reactions to the book and answering some of the attacks. Contents: Preface to the first edition; Preface to the second edition; 1 Introduction; 2 Jacques Lacan; 3 Julia Kristeva; 4 Intermezzo: Epistemic relativism in the philosophy of science; 5 Luce Irigaray; 6 Bruno Latour; 7 Intermezzo: Chaos theory and 'postmodern science'; 8 Jean Baudrillard; 9 Gilles Deleuze and FeÌlix Guattari; 10 Paul Virilio; 11 Godel's theorem and set theory: Some examples of abuse; 12 Epilogue; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.