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Three scholars wrote 20 fake papers using fashionable jargon to argue for ridiculous conclusions.


PittsburghTiger

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I saw a bit of a film on this, I think on the Vice Channel. It was really interesting.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/new-sokal-hoax/572212/

What an Audacious Hoax Reveals About Academia

Three scholars wrote 20 fake papers using fashionable jargon to argue for ridiculous conclusions.

OCT 5, 2018

 

Over the past 12 months, three scholars—James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter Boghossian—wrote 20 fake papers using fashionable jargon to argue for ridiculous conclusions, and tried to get them placed in high-profile journals in fields including gender studies, queer studies, and fat studies. Their success rate was remarkable: By the time they took their experiment public late on Tuesday, seven of their articles had been accepted for publication by ostensibly serious peer-reviewed journals. Seven more were still going through various stages of the review process. Only six had been rejected.

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why do journals have to be in such inscrutable language? "alternative knowledges?"  if they were just straightforward with their language, people could grade based on merit.

 

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Other means superior to the natural sciences exist to extract alternative knowledges about stars and enriching astronomy, including ethnography and other social science methodologies, careful examination of the intersection of extant astrologies from around the globe, incorporation of mythological narratives and modern feminist analysis of them, feminist interpretative dance (especially with regard to the movements of the stars and their astrological significance), and direct application of feminist and postcolonial discourses concerning alternative knowledges and cultural narratives.

... is great!

"There are other ways to learn important things about astronomy beyond just the mathematics behind movement of the stars:  you could turn to astrology, mythology, interpretive dance, cultural issues arising from European colonial expansion, etc."

... would be met with a laugh.

 

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