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The Sokal affair, additionally known as the Sokal hoax, [1] was a demonstrative scholarly hoax performed by Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University and University College London. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article to Social Text, an academic journal of cultural studies.
The Sokal affair, also called the Sokal hoax,[1] was a scholarly publishing sting perpetrated by Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University and University College London. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies.
Alan David Sokal (/ ˈsoʊkəl / SOH-kəl; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University. He works with statistical mechanics and combinatorics.
It turns out that the original Social Text issue was basically a rejoinder to Norman Levitt, Alan Sokal's ally in the so-called science wars. Alan told Lingua Franca that his spoof was inspired by Levitt's efforts to expose irrational tendencies in the academy.
- Historical Context
- Participant Viewpoints
- Ethical Dilemmas
- Conclusion
The Sokal Affair was an incident within a larger intellectual debate called the Science Wars. The Science Wars occurred in the mid-1990’s with natural scientists debating against social scientists. In the early 1970’s, social scientists began challenging the objectivity of scientific findings . Social scientists questioned whether scientific findin...
Alan Sokal
The impetus for the affair was predicated on Sokals belief that postmodernism’s relativist attitude was at “odds with scientists’ idea of their own practice,” and threatened serious scientific study. According to Sokal, “While scientists try, as best they can, to obtain an objective view of (certain aspects of) the world, relativist thinkers tell them that they are wasting their time and that such enterprise is, in principle, an illusion” . Sokal was therefore angered by the perceived overste...
Social Text
Social Text is a journal published out of Duke University that focuses on social and cultural phenomena . The journal is a self-titled “daring and controversial leader in the field of cultural studies” and “seeks provocative interviews and challenging articles from emerging critical voices…in the debates about postcolonialism, postmodernism, and popular culture.” Because of the wide range of voices that the journal publishes, Social Text does not have rigorous guidelines for accepting article...
Editorial Oversight
Sokal sought to expose the failings of postmodernism’s relativist attitude with the publication of his hoax article. He presumed that the acceptance of subjectivity within the postmodernist camp would impede their ability to turn down his article as it would be as valid as any other viewpoint. He felt that such a journal was prone to publish his unfounded article because it fell in line with their ideology and met their goals. Sokal constructed his article to play on these sensibilities, and...
Intentional Deception
Alan Sokal intentionally sent incorrect information to Social Text. He disguised his information in complicated jargon. Although he intended to reveal the false nature of the article, he still decided to use the means of deception to achieve his goal. If his goal was to make a stand against postmodernism and its potential attack on the scientific community, were there other ways for him to get his point across? One relatively common example of deception that can lead to unwanted side effects...
The Sokal affair presents two competing ideological and ethical frameworks in conflict with one another. The two disagree on the role each camp should take in moderating and influencing the way science and social science are studied. Each group is able to justify their tactics in the affair through their own framework. In the scientific community, ...
The Sokal hoax shares with other controversies of our time the typical feature of erupting suddenly with the threat of dire consequence, only to disappear quickly and nearly completely from public consciousness.
People also ask
What was the Sokal affair?
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The greatest significance of the affair lies, indeed, in the very fact that it became so widely known and evoked such intense responses. In itself, Sokal's piece was intentionally sophomoric, a transparently silly joke.
