The Sokal Hoax

The Sokal Hoax

In Fall of 1994, New York University theoretical physicist, Alan Sokal, submitted an essay to Social Text, the leading journal in the field of cultural studies. This essay, entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity," pretended to be a scholarly article about the "postmodern" philosophical and political implications of the twentieth century physical theories. However, as Sokal later revealed in the journal Lingua Franca, his essay was merely a mixture of deliberately concocted blunder, stitched together so as to look good and to flatter the conceptual views of the editors. After review by five members of Social Text's editorial board, Sokal's "cartoon" was accepted for publication as a serious piece of scholarship. 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 (Boghossian).

Sokal's essay seems to show a few important things. The views about the concepts of truth and evidence have gained widespread acceptance within the present day academy. This has had precisely the sort of harmful consequence on the standards of scholarship and intelligent responsibility. Neither of the

above two claims needs to reflect a particular political point of view (Boghossian).

Sokal starts off by establishing his postmodernist credentials. He ridicules scientists for continuing to cling to the post-teachings of authority over the Western intellectual outlook. There is a way that human beings can obtain reliable knowledge of these properties. He states that this belief has already been thoroughly undermined by the theories of gener...

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... wrong in getting it published. I, for one, am glad he did. He must be very intelligent to slide a hoax like his by a so-called

group of educated scientists. Sokal goes out of his way to leave telltale clues as to his true intent - the conclusion is inescapable that the editors of Social Text didn't know what many of the sentences in Sokal's essay actually meant; and that they just didn't care (Boghossian). So overall, Sokal's hoax seems to be a brilliant piece of work. Hopefully the editors of many publications have learned something from his "performance."

Bibliography:

Works Cited

Boghossian, Paul. From the Times Literary Supplement, Commentary.

December 13, 1996, pp.14-15

http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~bweiner/sokal.html#post1

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/boghossian/: