Monday, October 26, 2009 | Reason : In the News | print version

Print | Comments |

Norman Levitt (1943-2009)

by Richard Dawkins

Norman Levitt, Professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University, died of heart failure on 24th October. His wife writes that a memorial service will be held on Nov 1st at 1.30 pm, at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, 630 Amsterdam Avenue at 91st Street, New York. No flowers please, but donations in his memory to National Center for Science Education, 420 40th Street, Suite 2, Oakland, California (that’s Eugenie Scott’s outfit, and a very good cause).
I didn’t know Norman Levitt well, but this is what I wrote, on the jacket of his 1999 book Prometheus Bedevilled: Science and the Contradictions of Contemporary Culture: -

Norman Levitt is a new enlightenment hero, a post-postmodern Prometheus bringing fire to the bellies of scholars and students intimidated by obscurantist intellectual bullies and needing encouragement to fight back. There is a real world, we live in it, true and false things can be said about it, science is how we find out about it, and it really matters.

His previous book (1994) Higher Superstition: the Academic Left and its Quarrels with Science, written jointly with Paul Gross, was a devastating indictment of ‘postmodern’ pretention. It was of this book that I wrote, in my ‘Postmodernism Disrobed’ review of Fashionable Nonsense by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,824,Postmodernism-Disrobed,Richard-Dawkins-Nature,page4

As is now rather well known, in 1996 Sokal submitted to the American journal Social Text a paper called 'Transgressing the Boundaries: towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity.' From start to finish the paper was nonsense. It was a carefully crafted parody of postmodern metatwaddle. Sokal was inspired to do this by Paul Gross and Normal Levitt's Higher Superstition: the academic left and its quarrels with science (Johns Hopkins, 1994), an important book which deserves to become as well known in Britain as it already is in America. Hardly able to believe what he read in this book, Sokal followed up the references to postmodern literature, and found that Gross and Levitt did not exaggerate. He resolved to do something about it.

I would suggest that the books that he wrote and inspired are the best memorial to Norman Levitt. Read them, and encourage others to do so.
With deep sympathy to his wife and family
Richard

Posted: Monday, October 26, 2009 | Permalink

Comments 1 - 25 of 25 |

Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers

1. Comment #426945 by Follow Peter Egan on October 26, 2009 at 5:20 pm

I'm not familiar with his work, but I will have to rectify that. Sounds a sad loss, though.

Other Comments by Follow Peter Egan

2. Comment #426947 by MBDowd on October 26, 2009 at 5:23 pm

Thanks for this, Richard. I wholeheartedly agree with you. I'm amazed at how many so-called "progressive" religious people justify their sloppy, superstitious, anti-science positions on postmodern grounds. I can only hope that his death prompting comments like yours here will revive an interest in Levitt's writings.

Other Comments by MBDowd

3. Comment #426951 by glenister_m on October 26, 2009 at 5:31 pm

As PZ said in a recent blog, get people to specify exactly what they mean by their postmodern language, and when you actually get them to explicitly state what it is they believe, they all sound like such clowns.

Levitt's passing is our loss.

Other Comments by glenister_m

4. Comment #426962 by cauri on October 26, 2009 at 5:51 pm

I am unfamiliar with his writing, but I will fix that shortly. I look forward to reading his writing.

It sounds like a great loss.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Higher-Superstition-Academic-Quarrels-Science/dp/0801857074/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256579326&sr=1-1

Other Comments by cauri

5. Comment #426965 by Lucas on October 26, 2009 at 5:53 pm

Dr. Levitt is an inspiration. He called shenanigans on the whole academic enterprise. I will reenter that world armed with his wisdom.

Other Comments by Lucas

6. Comment #426971 by Barry Pearson on October 26, 2009 at 6:08 pm

I have read "Higher Superstition: the Academic Left and its Quarrels with Science" at least twice.

Mind-boggling! Some of the views held by the people described in it make religion look rational!

(Well ....)

(Minor point - I think the book could have been 3/4 of the size if the authors hadn't gone to such lengths to avoid the possibility of people choosing to take unintended offense. The authors were hyper-sensitive to the hyper-sensitive scrutiny that such a book would be subjected to).

Other Comments by Barry Pearson

7. Comment #427016 by mirandaceleste on October 26, 2009 at 7:13 pm

Dr. Levitt is an inspiration. He called shenanigans on the whole academic enterprise. I will reenter that world armed with his wisdom.

I absolutely agree. I hadn't heard this news. Very sad.

(And good luck with reentering the academic world. Unfortunately, my experience as an English undergraduate and graduate student, and as a college English teacher, has only reinforced the need for books like Levitt's. Postmodern nonsense truly has taken over English departments, and probably other academic divisions, too, sadly enough.)

Other Comments by mirandaceleste

8. Comment #427078 by mikey nails! on October 26, 2009 at 8:49 pm

A moving tribute, Richard. Well done.

Other Comments by mikey nails!

9. Comment #427119 by Heather Levitt on October 26, 2009 at 10:27 pm

Richard,

My mother and I would like to thank you for your incredibly kind words. We are grieving at this time, but it is comforting to know that my father will be remembered for his work and contributions to the cause.

Most sincerely,
Heather

Other Comments by Heather Levitt

10. Comment #427122 by shantaram on October 26, 2009 at 10:32 pm

Unfortunate news hearing of the passing of a inspirational individual.

If only more people realized the level of postmodern 'flowery language' and semantics that gets thrown around, and apparently makes one sound more intelligent.

Other Comments by shantaram

11. Comment #427128 by Corylus on October 26, 2009 at 10:40 pm

Take care Heather, my condolences.

Other Comments by Corylus

12. Comment #427153 by Mark Jones on October 27, 2009 at 12:01 am

Comment #427119 by Heather Levitt

Yes, condolences for the loss of your dad. He sounds like a great guy, and definitely made a great contribution.

Other Comments by Mark Jones

13. Comment #427203 by Daniel Chess on October 27, 2009 at 6:52 am

Norman Levitt was a very fine pure mathematician as well as a critic of academic babble.

Other Comments by Daniel Chess

14. Comment #427225 by TinyRobot on October 27, 2009 at 9:42 am

Higher Superstition was an essential part of my education in the importance of scientific reasoning and in the vapidity of postmodern 'theory'. This is indeed a sad loss.

Other Comments by TinyRobot

15. Comment #427233 by the4thNeutralNuclide on October 27, 2009 at 10:26 am

My condoleneces to Norman's family. I was introduced to his work with Paul Gross work during my MSc in Communicating Science with the Open University. I was stunned by the level of post-modernist drivel that has been able to pass for cleverness. We worry about 'less-educated' people not understanding science - we should worry more about 'better-educated' people deliberately misunderstanding and then misrepresenting science and trying to replace it with what would be to most people patent bollocks - were they to read even a paragraph of some of what is written. Tom

Other Comments by the4thNeutralNuclide

16. Comment #427272 by Vaal on October 27, 2009 at 1:36 pm

As others, my condolences to Norman's family. I will certainly be adding his books to my Christmas list.

The world has lost a voice of reason, in the tide of post-modernist drivel on the rise today, just when we need rational voices to ride shotgun against unchallenged woo, especially when promulgated by so-called intellectuals and scholars, who should know better.

Other Comments by Vaal

17. Comment #427313 by Lucas on October 27, 2009 at 4:22 pm

mirandaceleste - Kudos and thanks to you for taking the plunge. Indeed, I thought long and hard while doing my MA about whether I was willing to deal with all the bullshit in academia for the rest of my life. I came to the conclusion that it is exactly because of the bullshit that I must. If those of us who can call bullshit when we see it don't take up positions in academia and don't force our disciplines to be honest and rigorous, then in whose hands are we leaving the kids?

I won't do it. Yeah, it'll be a pain in the ass sometimes, but I won't back down. I and anyone else who has the capability and interest has a responsibility to do our best and to raise the bar, despite the obvious obstacles. Dr. Levitt knew this, and so does Richard, and so does Sam Harris, and so does Dan Dennett.

Other Comments by Lucas

18. Comment #428055 by Ranicki on October 29, 2009 at 7:23 pm

I was a mathematical colleague and friend of Norman Levitt. I have posted Norman's obituary on the algebraic topology discussion list (which is not public), and also on my own website
http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/surgery/norman.html
A bibliography of both his mathematical and science
publications is available from
http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/levitt.pdf
Andrew Ranicki (Edinburgh)

Other Comments by Ranicki

19. Comment #428149 by Ophelia Benson on October 30, 2009 at 1:20 am

Damn. I didn't know Norm at all except via email, but I thought of him as a friend.

He did an email interview for me when Butterflies and Wheels was an infant (and so there was no particularly obvious reason for him to do so, apart from the intentions behind B&W). It was only the fourth article I published at B&W.

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php£num=7

Damn. He'll be missed.

Steve Fuller can go soak his head.

Other Comments by Ophelia Benson

20. Comment #428332 by Dr Aust on October 30, 2009 at 5:26 pm

Talking of Professor Fuller, you might want to check out this:

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/swfuller/entry/norman_levitt_rip/

Warning, though - it may cause anger.

Other Comments by Dr Aust

21. Comment #428341 by Dr Aust on October 30, 2009 at 5:57 pm

PS Reading Steve Fuller's rather nasty jibe at Levitt, I am struck by how the post-modernist crew reflexly label anyone who pokes fun at their rhetoric and circumlocutions a "science fascist" (or version thereof), or characterize the attempt to distinguish Reality from Unreality as "fascism". For a discussion of a choice earlier example try:

http://www.badscience.net/2006/08/archie-cochrane-fascist/

Other Comments by Dr Aust

22. Comment #428373 by MelM on October 30, 2009 at 7:37 pm

Heather Levitt,

My condolences; I want to also recognize his efforts to stem the onslaught of the modern culture of unreason. I had been busy for many years and hadn't really grasped what had been going on until I read the book "The Flight From Science and Reason" that Dr Levitt and others edited.

Other Comments by MelM

23. Comment #428388 by MelM on October 30, 2009 at 8:30 pm

This has tied a number of things together for me.

I had heard of "Higher Superstition" several years ago but had forgotten to search for it and didn't know who the author was. So now the authors turn out to be Levitt and Gross, who are non other than the guys who edited the valuable book "The Flight From Reason and Science" which was my wakeup call in the late '90s. BTW, the book is still available:
http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Science-Reason-Academy-Sciences/dp/0801856760/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256930157&sr=1-1

Now I find out that the "Higher Superstition" inspired the Sokal hoax, that the journal issue containing the hoax was put together to rebut "Higher Superstition" and that Fuller had an article in it. According Nick Matzke's post at the "Panda's Thumb" blog, Fuller also read the Sokal article when it was submitted. And, Fuller was the "science studies" guy in the Kitzmiller trial that I'd heard about; small world. I read the decision but not the trial transcript so I didn't (and still don't) know what Fuller said--I need to find a writeup or find that section of the transcript.
I've gotten much of the above from the post by Nick Matzke at "Panda's Thumb"--which is worth reading.
http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2009/10/steve-fuller-sh.html#comments

Other Comments by MelM

24. Comment #428535 by Ophelia Benson on October 31, 2009 at 2:44 pm

MelM, I think all the transcripts are available at TalkOrigins. Just google 'dover transcripts' I think - or that plus 'fuller' if you want the ineffable Steve.

In addition to Higher Superstition and The Flight From Science and Reason, there is Prometheus Bedeviled, Norm's own book (not co-authored, I mean) - it's a brilliant look at the deep roots of hostility to reason and science.

Other Comments by Ophelia Benson

25. Comment #428551 by phil rimmer on October 31, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Norman Levitt's fight against PoMo was brought to my attention first by Richard's Postmodernism Disrobed article. I am deeply grateful for Norman's thorough going and detailed debunking of an obscurantist and valueless philosophy. I think this fight against PoMo, the need to wrest the controls of society from those who would poison reason itself for (often) political ends, is of huge significance and Norman's untimely death is multiply unfortunate.

My condolences to his family.

I'm off to buy books.

Other Comments by phil rimmer

Reload Comments | Back to Top