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Norman Levitt

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Norman Levitt
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Born
Norman Jay Levitt

(1943-08-27)August 27, 1943
The Bronx, New York City, U.S.
DiedOctober 24, 2009(2009-10-24) (aged 66)
EducationHarvard College
Princeton University (PhD)
Known forHigher Superstition
Scientific career
FieldsGeometric topology
WorkplacesRutgers University

Norman Jay Levitt (August 27, 1943[1] – October 24, 2009[2][3]) was an American mathematician and writer. A specialist in topology and a professor at Rutgers University, he became better known to the general public for his criticism of postmodernist and social-constructivist descriptions of science.

Education and career

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Levitt was born in The Bronx and received a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1963.[4][1] He received a PhD from Princeton University in 1967.[2] His doctoral thesis was titled "Applications of engulfing"[5][6], and his advisor was William Browder.[7]

After two years at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Levitt joined the mathematics faculty at Rutgers University in 1969 and remained there until his retirement in 2007.[7]

Work

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Levitt's mathematical research included differential and geometric topology, as well as surgery theory.[8] His 1989 monograph Grassmannians and Gauss Maps in Piecewise-Linear Topology developed analogs of Grassmannians and Gauss maps, with applications to characteristic class theory, smoothing theory, and immersion problems.[9]

From the 1990s, Levitt became prominent as a critic of postmodernist, social-constructivist, and deconstructionist approaches to science.[2] With biologist Paul R. Gross, he wrote Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science (1994), which criticized what they regarded as misunderstandings and politicization of science within parts of the academic humanities and social sciences.[10]

Levitt's criticism focused particularly on what he regarded as anti-scientific tendencies within parts of the academic left.[10] Although Levitt identified as left-wing, he argued that parts of the "academic left" had retreated into what he called "left scholasticism". He characterized this tendency as a belief that "solemn incantation can overturn the order of the social universe, if only the jargon be appropriately obscure and exotic, and intoned with sufficient fervor".[11] In his obituary of Levitt, Michael Shermer summarized Levitt's objection as being directed at approaches that treated science as "just another way of knowing", thereby diminishing its epistemic status.[2]

Higher Superstition influenced Alan Sokal's decision to submit a parody article to Social Text to test whether the journal would publish an article he considered nonsensical if it matched the editors' ideological expectations. Its publication and Sokal's later revelation of the hoax became known as the Sokal affair.[12][13]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. 1 2 "Norman Levitt Dies". Reports of the National Center for Science Education. National Center for Science Education. November–December 2009. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Shermer, Michael (2009-10-26). "Farewell to Norman Jay Levitt (1943–2009)". eSkeptic. The Skeptics Society. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
  3. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths – Levitt, Norman". Paid death notice. The New York Times. November 1, 2009. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
  4. ↑ Pasachoff, Jay M. (March–April 2010). "A Friend Remembers Norm Levitt, Mathematician and Foe of Pseudoscience" (PDF). Skeptical Inquirer. 34 (2). Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 9–11. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Applications of Engulfing". ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. ProQuest. Archived from the original on May 4, 2026. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Bibliography of Norman Levitt (1943–2009)" (PDF). University of Edinburgh School of Mathematics. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2026. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  7. 1 2 "Spring 2007 Newsletter". Rutgers University Department of Mathematics. Rutgers University. 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Mathematics 640, 642". Rutgers University Graduate Catalog. Rutgers University. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
  9. ↑ Levitt, Norman (1989). Grassmannians and Gauss Maps in Piecewise-Linear Topology. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. Vol. 1366. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/BFb0084994. ISBN 978-3-540-50756-7.
  10. 1 2 Gross, Paul R.; Levitt, Norman (1994). Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-4766-0.
  11. ↑ Levitt, Norman (1998). "Why Professors Believe Weird Things: Sex, Race, and the Trials of the New Left". Skeptic. 6 (3). The Skeptics Society: 28–35. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
  12. ↑ Seebach, Linda (May 12, 1996). "Scientist Takes Academia for a Ride with Parody". The Valley Times. Pleasanton, California. Retrieved August 21, 2026 – via Alan Sokal's Writings on Science, Philosophy and Culture.
  13. ↑ Gordin, Michael D. (2019). "The Other Demarcation Problem". Isis. 110 (4): 766–769. doi:10.1086/706533. Retrieved August 21, 2026.
  14. ↑ Gross, Paul R.; Levitt, Norman; Lewis, Martin W., eds. (1997). The Flight from Science and Reason. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Vol. 775. New York: New York Academy of Sciences. ISBN 978-0-8018-5676-1.

Further reading

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