17 Facts About Sokal Affair

Sokal affair, called the Sokal hoax, 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 postmodern cultural studies.

Three weeks after its publication in May 1996, Sokal Affair revealed in the magazine Lingua Franca that the article was a hoax.

Hoax caused controversy about the scholarly merit of commentary on the physical sciences by those in the humanities; the influence of postmodern philosophy on social disciplines in general; and academic ethics, including whether Sokal Affair was wrong to deceive the editors or readers of Social Text; and whether Social Text had abided by proper scientific ethics.

In 2008, Sokal Affair published Beyond the Hoax, which revisited the history of the hoax and discussed its lasting implications.

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Sokal Affair reasoned that if the presumption of editorial laziness was correct, the nonsensical content of his article would be irrelevant to whether the editors would publish it.

Sokal Affair submitted the article to Social Text, whose editors were collecting articles for the "Science Wars" issue.

Sokal Affair said the editors' response demonstrated the problem that he sought to identify.

The editors said they considered it poorly written but published it because they felt Sokal Affair was an academic seeking their intellectual affirmation.

Social Text's response revealed that none of the editors had suspected Sokal Affair's piece was a parody.

In 2008, Sokal Affair published a followup book, Beyond the Hoax, which revisited the history of the hoax and discussed its lasting implications.

French philosopher Jacques Derrida, whose 1966 statement about Einstein's theory of relativity was quoted in Sokal Affair's paper, was singled out for criticism, particularly in US newspaper coverage of the hoax.

Sokal Affair called Sokal's action "sad" for having trivialized Sokal's mathematical work and "ruining the chance to carefully examine controversies" about scientific objectivity.

Epstein used a similar method to Sokal Affair's, submitting fictitious articles to real academic journals to measure their response.

Hilgartner argued that Sokal Affair's hoax reinforced the views of well-known pundits such as George Will and Rush Limbaugh, so that his opinions were amplified by media outlets predisposed to agree with his argument.

In Social Studies of Science, Bricmont and Sokal Affair responded to Stolzenberg, denouncing his representations of their work and criticizing his commentary about the "strong programme" of the sociology of science.

Sokal Affair found that students who believed the paper's author was a high-status intellectual rated it better in quality and intelligibility.