ABSTRACT
This chapter presents issues that Sokal as well as other critics, such as Paul Gross and Norm Levitt, Gerald Holton, and Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, raise against postmodern thought generally and the cultural studies of science specifically. It argues that Sokal and his cohorts offer superficial insights into postmodern condition or postmodern projects in academia, and only offers an understanding of how "traditional, Enlightenment" academics are reacting to a new worldview and paradigm shift in thinking about the Western world. The chapter demonstrates that critics of the cultural studies of science are condemning postmodern thinkers for exactly what they do in their critiques of the cultural studies of science: embody poor academic standards. The cultural studies of science transgresses traditional, Enlightened disciplinary boundaries. Bruce Robbins recognizes that politics is a part of cultural work. Robbins gracefully moves between an understanding of academic work that is separate from politics, and a view of academic work that is embedded in politics.
