Sokal and Bricmont’s critiques of postmodernism: a systematization

Abstract

Sokal and Bricmont's criticisms of postmodernism contained in the work “Intellectual Impostures” provoked different reactions in many different countries. This article includes a review of the literature on these reactions and how they dialogue with and approach different aspects of the work. It also seeks to contribute to the existing literature with a systematisation that allows us to abstract, from Sokal and Bricmont's reflections on specific thinkers (Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Bruno Latour, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, etc.), their critical ideas on postmodernism in general. This systematisation can be useful for analysing and understanding more recent thinkers and cultural movements that manifest, in whole or in part, the postmodern characteristics which were analysed and discussed by Sokal and Bricmont. This possibility justifies revisiting “Intellectual Impostures” more than two decades after its publication. The result may also be useful as supporting material in the study of the work and thought of the authors criticised by Sokal and Bricmont. It can also be useful for those who wish to participate in the debate on postmodernism, either to criticise or to defend it. Its content may be of particular interest to scholars of philosophy and the history of ideas, of general epistemology and the epistemology of the human and social sciences, of the sociology of science, and to those interested in the intersections between science, rationality and social emancipation.