ABSTRACT
Entitled 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity', it purported to be a scholarly article about the 'postmodern' philosophical and political implications of twentieth century physical theories. It appeared in April 1996, in a special double issue of the journal devoted to rebutting the charge that cultural studies critiques of science tend to be riddled with incompetence. In the United States, over twenty public forums devoted to the topic have either taken place or are scheduled, including packed sessions at Princeton, Duke, the University of Michigan, and New York University. Sokal then picks up steam, moving to his central thesis that recent developments within quantum gravity — an emerging and stillspeculative physical theory — go much further, substantiating not only postmodern denials of the objectivity of truth, but also the beginnings of a kind of physics that would be truly 'liberatory', of genuine service to progressive political causes.
