The sokal affair, also called the sokal hoax, was a publishing hoax perpetrated by alan sokal, a physics professor at new york university. Alan sokal is an american physicist and mathematician. In may 1996 physicist alan sokal published an essay in the fashionable academic journal social text. In 1996, sokal submitted an article to social text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. In 1996, alan sokal, a professor of physics at new york university, wrote a paper for the culturalstudies journal social text, entitled transgressing the boundaries. A study in citation identities article pdf available in scientometrics 601. Postmodern intellectuals abuse of science 1997, the authors selfcongratulatory description of a hoax paper they got published in social text.
Sokal immediately confessed that the whole article was a hoax a cunningly worded paper designed to expose and parody the style. He is best known for his criticism of postmodernism, which implies strongly that the proverbial emperor of postmodernism may indeed have been naked all along. The sokal hoax was about hubris the washington post. The submission was an experiment to test the journals intellectual rigor, and specifically, to investigate. Sokal said he spent months editing the piece and showed it to numerous. The sokal hoax became frontpage news around the world and triggered fierce and wideranging convtroversy for an article that was published in a culturalstudies journal was swiftly revealed by its author, alan sokal, to be a cunningly worded parody of extreme postmodernist criticism of science. August 14, 1945 october 30, 2004 was a russianborn jewishamerican historian of science quotes the sokal hoax. But on what grounds can believers presume to know that these assertions are true. Toward a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity in the postmodern journal social text. Toward a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity was a fraud intended to shame. No longer perceived as a crisis of the day, the affair is more likely now to elicit weariness with this particular battlefield of the. He came to prominence for the eponymous sokal hoax. In 1996, physicist alan sokal was unhappy with the tendency in academic postmodernism to dismiss scientific work.
Immediately afterwards he revealed the paper to be an elaborate hoax engineered to expose the bankruptcy of postmodernist discourse about science. Anatomy of a hoax the chronicle of higher education. The sokal hoax was a whole theater of operations in the culture wars of the mid 90s, but my undergraduate students, who were in elementary school in the mid 90s, have to take my word the early debates are bitter exchanges of theory and charges of political unorthodoxy. Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity to social text, a journal in cultural studies. At once outrageous and absurdist, his article transgressing the boundaries. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. He is a critic of postmodernism, and caused the sokal affair in 1996 when his deliberately nonsensical paper was published by duke university presss social text. The sham that shook the academy by the editors of lingua franca. The fallibility of human reason in everyday life new york. Okay, i just cant resist after watching a documentary on this story this evening. Sokal hoax, and to savor one more time the stances assumed by the wide range of persons who have made pronouncements upon it. New york university banner hangs from a building in new york in april 2010.
Next, these authors would publish in some journal called cosmic newsand claim that a naturalscience journal has fallen for their hoax. In 1996 alan sokal, a professor of physics at new york university, submitted an article entitled transgressing. The submission was an experiment to test the journals intellectual rigor, and specifically to investigate whether. Sokal and redhead continue to not reply to my letters. Thats why lindsay, pluckrose, and boghossian set out to rerun the original hoax, only on a much larger scale. The sokal affair, also called the sokal hoax, was a demonstrative scholarly hoax performed by alan sokal, a physics professor at new york university and university college london. Anyone interested in the culture wars, the science wars, or american academia should be familiar with this material. What the new sokal hoax reveals about academia the atlantic. Papers by alan sokal on the social text affair sokalbricmont book. All content is posted anonymously by employees working at sokal media group. The sokal affair, also called the sokal hoax, was a demonstrative scholarly hoax performed by alan sokal, a physics professor at new york university and. Postmodern gravity deconstructed, slyly the new york times. There is a lot of good and clear thinking in this book. Nyu submitted an article entitled transgressing the boundaries.
The chronicle of higher education, which is a window on the sometimes weird world of academia, recently revisited a hilarious intellectual hoax from 20 years ago. The book is a collection of essays he has written on the topic. And i really, really wish the media would stop indulging them. That spring, social text accepted sokal s submission, and on may 15, sokal sent a. Reducing costs and expanding xml submissions with pdf to jats. The sokal hoax remains a defining event in late20th century american academia, and this collection, along with sokals fashionable nonsense, is part of the essential documentation of this sad and sorry affair. 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. Each religion makes scores of purportedly factual assertions about everything from the creation of the universe to the afterlife.
Shoup was shocked when i handed it back to him with. Beyond the hoax by alan sokal nicholas lezard on the wit and wisdom of transgression nicholas lezard. Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity. I remember when donald shoup gleefully handed me sokal and bricmonts fashionable nonsense. In 1996, the physicist alan sokal perpetrated a hoax on the academic journal social text intended to text the intellectual rigor of postmodernist thinking. The argument was deepened by a pseudoscientific hoax paper published in a postmodern 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. In 1996, physicist alan sokal perpetrated one of the few successful trojan horse rhetorical strategies in academia by submitting a fake article to a real academic journal, social text. The paper presents a brief overview of the challenges facing institutions with the xmlization of academic journals and the steps being taken in japan to meet. So he submitted a bogus paper called transgressing the boundaries.
Beyond the hoax alan sokal oxford university press. Sokals hoax and tensions in scientific left, by gita chadha economic and political weekly, august 30, 1997 truth, reason, objectivity and the left, by alan sokal economic and political weekly, april 18, 1998 available in postscript and pdf formats. Eleven of the greatest scientific hoaxes new scientist. To michael redhead from ivor catt apr98 oct98jan99. Sokal bemoans the fact that he was unable to provide only a handful of the latter.
The hilarious hoax that should have taught the academy a. The sokal hoax was trash and this latest hoax is even. Hoaxes of exposure are semicomical or private sting operations. It would take nearly a year for the article to appear.
Sokal hoax a physicist experiments with cultural studies by alan sokal physicist alan sokal reveals the motivations behind his infamous sokal hoax article an experiment after becoming frustrated with what he saw as the abuses of science and mathematics by writers and academics under the umbrella of cultural studiespoststructuralism. Featuring clifford goldstein this work is licensed under the creative commons attributionnoncommercialno derivative works 3. Generally speaking, the journals that fell for sokal squared. But there is one criticism that i have of the book. Mixing metaphors, celebrating the 15year anniversary of what still must be considered a total slam dunk in what was called the science wars or the culture wars framed as for or. When the leftwing culturalstudies journal social text released a special issue on the science wars in april 1996, the last article stood. Science, philosophy and culture oxford university press, oxford, 2008, paperback 2010, isbn paperback. In the united states, over twenty public forums devoted to the topic have either taken place or are scheduled, including packed sessions at princeton, duke, the.
The sokal hoax, also known as the sokal affair, was a publishing hoax perpetrated by alan sokal, a physics professor at new york university. They arent some deluded fruity spiritualism, they are a coming to rest in the faculty of reason and a willing submission of the emotion to that authority. After it was discovered by accident that a number of his papers, including one in nature, were based on fabricated data, he was sent packing from both his job and the world of science. In 1996, new york university professor of physics alan sokal wrote a parody of an academic article he titled transgressing the boundaries. Toward a transfor mative hermeneutics of quantum gravity. The reasons they give are various, but the ultimate justification for most religious peoples beliefs is a simple one. How the physicist alan sokal hoodwinked a group of humanists and why, 20 years later, it still matters.
In 1996, american physicist alan sokal submitted a paper loaded with nonsensical jargon to the journal social text. Full text of the sokal hoax see other formats 1 morten tolboll the sokal hoax the sokal hoax, also known as the sokal affair, was a publishing hoax perpetrated by alan sokal, a physics professor at new york university. The submission was an experiment to test the journals intellectual rigor and, specifically, to investigate whether a leading north american journal of. An oral history by jennifer ruark january 01, 2017 premium t. The editors of social text did not detect that sokals article was a hoax, and they published it in the journals springsummer 1996 issue. Fashionable nonsense grew out of the famous hoax in which alan sokal published a parody article in the american postmodern journal social text. The book introduces an idea central to all of michaels work the consequences to consciousness and society of ancestral trauma, and how this underlying trauma becomes the means for slavethink and mass control. It is a rambling essay, filled with gender studies jargon, which took issue with the implications for trans and genderqueer individuals in regarding the penis. I had no idea when this special issue would be published, and the hoax had to be kept secret. I noticed that your lecture about the sokal hoax, with sokal present, omitted all the content of my letter, copy below, except that you said. Bait and switch how the physicist alan sokal hoodwinked a group of humanists and why, 20 years later, it still matters.