Essay about The Sokal Hoax - 1023 Words

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 Texts editorial board, Sokals cartoon was accepted†¦show more content†¦Sokal then goes on about his views on quantum gravity and physical theory. He tries to generate political and cultural views from these views. His reasoning is supported by nothing more than a hazy patchwork of puns. When he does this, how is i t that credential scientists can claim to have a complete understanding on scientific knowledge in their field? They accepted an article that was a total hoax and didnt realize it! This article was an impenetrable swamp of jargon and citations. At the same time this article was printed, Sokal published an article in Lingua Franca revealing that the article was a total hoax, and more or less was to show the intellectual absence in the field of those that had published it. There were many different reactions to the publishing of Sokals essay. Some applauded him for putting many of the too smart for their own good/think their so smart scientists in their place. It was an ingenious act. Then there were those who frowned upon his actions in that he had no right to have such an article published. The following are some arguments that are opposing Sokals misuse of knowledge. A one sentence summary: its bad enough, being in a physics department, seeing physicist compete to try to prove theyre smarter than each other all the time; the last thing I need is to see them acting out this compulsion to prove that they are intellectual kings of the entire academy(Weiner). True, but ifShow MoreRelatedEssay on Postmodern condition780 Words   |  4 Pagesexample of flipping a deeper reality by its overriding, and then hiding its deficiencies, through breaking any relations with it and finally achieving the status of its simulacrum, completely emancipated from the power of what is real is the Sokal hoax. Sokal saw a marked reduction in the standards of intellectual reliability in some American hum anistic academic circles. That is why he decided to do the â€Å"experiment†, which consisted in checking whether the leading American journal dedicated to culturalRead MoreHumanities vs. Sciences Essay1938 Words   |  8 Pagesmanner, suggested that Snow was simply a public relations ‘stooge’ for the sciences. The argument was deepened by a pseudoscientific hoax paper published in a post-modern cultural studies journal by Sokal (1996a, 1996b), a mathematical physicist, who demonstrated that there was an acceptance of a lack of rigour in published humanities work. There was a furore over this hoax and counter arguments and rebuttals engaged many academics in a bitter dispute, but unsurprisingly an examination of this literatureRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 PagesYork University physicist Alain Sokal submitted a sham article to the cultural studies journal Social Text, in which he reviewed some current topics in physics and mathematics a nd with tongue in cheek, drew various cultural, philosophical and political morals that he thought would appeal to fashionable postmodern academic commentators on science who question the claims of science to objectivity. The editors of Social Text did not detect that Sokal’s article was a hoax, and they published it in the