Abuse of mathematics in philosophy

Abstract

In his paper the author presents the so-called Sokal Hoax, an experiment carried out by American physicist Alan Sokal who intended to draw attention to the shortcomings of postmodern theoretical production as well as the crisis of university intellectual values in humanism and cultural studies. He particularly pointed out the poststructuralist intellectuals and their abuse of mathematics and natural sciences. Thus Sokal entered a broader uncontrolled experiment, into the war between humanist and natural scientists. C. P. Snow has already shown that we must take into consideration two different cultures, in common with their distinct cultural spheres, that hardly communicate with each other. During the debate which followed the hoax, it was noted that the most crucial point lies in the fact that both sides see the problem only from their own perspective. This is also the main problem of Sokal’s approach. It is not so much the question of how to bring both ways of thinking closer but of how to conceive them together.