But when the subjects are contemporary philosophy, social theory, psychoanalytic theory, etc, you're suddenly an instant, self-appointed 'expert' with no shortage of 'pronouncements' on topics you've never even studied in your Department of Ignorance.
Also informative that when silent Sokals** are later exposed within the institutions of science and medicine, they are just side-lined as 'a few bad apples', the instutions themselves remaining flawless, infallible, and fully intact.
**Not just those who submit fake academic papers, but also the vast number of self-serving "egotistical bastards", from those who distort /invent data to fit a 'theory', to those who fake their credentials - all those phoney doctors exposed after practicing for years, not to mention their abuse of power vis-a-vis patients, or pharma-capitalism's phoney drugs, or 'environmental scientists' paid to falsify their 'findings' ... the list is endless. Of course, if an actual Sokal submitted a fake paper to a 'prestigious scientific journal,' had it accepted, and
then publicly announced that it was all a complete hoax, fabricated to expose inherent flaws in the institutional structure of academic scientific research, the response would undoubtedly be 'That Guy's a Total Nutter, and a Complete Fraud', the unquestioned institution unblinkingly and smoothly then returning to 'business as usual.'
***I see that Badiou's
The Concept of Model has finally been fully translated into English.
"This excellent translation of Alain Badiou's first book, The Concept of Model, is important on two counts. First, it constitutes a significant contribution to the philosophy of science (and to the philosophy of mathematics in particular), in which Badiou critically engages with the logical empiricist tradition which exerted such a profound influence on Anglo-American philosophy of science. Second, it sheds light on the epistemological considerations that eventually led to Badiou's subsequent but much misunderstood identification of ontology with mathematics. This book is not only indispensable for those seeking to understand Badiou's philosophical project, it should also be of considerable interest to anyone interested in investigating points of contact between the 'analytic' and 'continental' traditions." ---Ray Brassier, Middlesex University