Editing Richard Dawkins (section)

=== Views on postmodernism ===
{{See also|Social construction of gender}}

In 1998, in a book review published in [[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']], Dawkins expressed his appreciation for two books connected with the [[Sokal affair]]: ''[[Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science]]'' by [[Paul R. Gross]] and [[Norman Levitt]] and ''[[Fashionable Nonsense|Intellectual Impostures]]'' by [[Alan Sokal]] and [[Jean Bricmont]]. These books are famous for their criticism of [[postmodernism]] in U.S. universities (namely in the departments of literary studies, anthropology, and other cultural studies).<ref name="postmodernism">{{cite journal|last=Dawkins|first=Richard|date=9 July 1998|title=Postmodernism Disrobed|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=394|issue=6689|pages=141–143|bibcode=1998Natur.394..141D|doi=10.1038/28089|s2cid=40887987|doi-access=free}} For article with math symbols see [http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/dawkins.html this link] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417132936/http://physics.nyu.edu/sokal/dawkins.html |date=17 April 2016 }}.</ref>

Echoing many critics, Dawkins holds that postmodernism uses [[obscurantism|obscurantist]] language to hide its lack of meaningful content. As an example he quotes the psychoanalyst [[Félix Guattari]]: "We can clearly see that there is no bi-univocal correspondence between linear signifying links or archi-writing, depending on the author, and this multireferential, multi-dimensional machinic catalysis." This is explained, Dawkins maintains, by certain intellectuals' academic ambitions. Figures like Guattari or [[Jacques Lacan]], according to Dawkins, have nothing to say but want to reap the benefits of reputation and fame that derive from a successful academic career: "Suppose you are an intellectual impostor with nothing to say, but with strong ambitions to succeed in academic life, collect a coterie of reverent disciples and have students around the world anoint your pages with respectful yellow highlighter. What kind of literary style would you cultivate? Not a lucid one, surely, for clarity would expose your lack of content."<ref name="postmodernism" />

In 2024 Dawkins co-authored an op-ed in ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' with Sokal criticising the use of the terminology "sex assigned at birth" instead of "sex" by the [[American Medical Association]], the [[American Psychological Association]], the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] and the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]]. Dawkins and Sokal argued that [[sex]] is an "objective biological reality" that "is determined at conception and is then ''observed'' at birth," rather than [[Sex assignment|assigned]] by a medical professional. Calling this "[[social constructionism]] gone amok," Dawkins and Sokal argued further that "distort[ing] the scientific facts in the service of a social cause" risks undermining trust in medical institutions.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sokal |first1=Alan |last2=Dawkins |first2=Richard |date=April 8, 2024 |title=Sex and gender: The medical establishment's reluctance to speak honestly about biological reality |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/08/opinion/sex-gender-medical-terms/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240408223633/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/08/opinion/sex-gender-medical-terms/ |archive-date=April 8, 2024 |access-date=April 8, 2024 |work=[[The Boston Globe]]}}</ref>