Reply #3: That was a great hoax!

[LeftishBrit]

And in a way it does not surprise me that people fell for it. I have tried at times to read postmodernist philosophers, and maybe my brain just lacks the necessary module for such things, but I find them totally incomprehensible - and they sound very much like the hoax paper. Especially when they start mixing their stuff with science or mathematics.

Has anyone else read Sokal and Bricmont's 'Intellectual Impostures'? It contains some examples of very jargon-filled and pretentious writings by well-known contemporary philosophers. I realize one could probably get a similar collection from many disciplines if one tried; but some of it was truly stunning. It's some time since I read it, but I remember that someone- possibly Lacane himself (certainly someone coming from a Freudian influence) - suggested that the square root of -1 symbolizes a penis!