The Sokal affair, also called the Sokal hoax,
was a demonstrative
scholarly hoax performed by
Alan Sokal
Alan David Sokal (; 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 in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. He is a critic of postmo ...
, a
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
professor at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
and
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article to ''
Social Text
''Social Text'' is an academic journal published by Duke University Press. Since its inception by an independent editorial collective in 1979, ''Social Text'' has addressed a wide range of social and cultural phenomena, covering questions of gende ...
'', an academic journal of
cultural studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
. The submission was an experiment to test the journal's
intellectual rigor
Rigour (British English) or rigor (American English; see spelling differences) describes a condition of stiffness or strictness. These constraints may be environmentally imposed, such as "the rigours of famine"; logically imposed, such as m ...
, specifically to investigate whether "a leading North American journal of cultural studies—whose editorial collective includes such luminaries as
Fredric Jameson
Fredric Jameson (born April 14, 1934) is an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism. James ...
and
Andrew Ross—
ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames.
Notable p ...
publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions."
The article, "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate c ...
of Quantum Gravity",
was published in the journal's spring/summer 1996 "
Science Wars
The science wars were a series of scholarly and public discussions in the 1990s over the social place of science in making authoritative claims about the world.
HighBeam Encyclopedia defines the science wars as the discussions about the "way the sc ...
" issue. It proposed that
quantum gravity
Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vi ...
is a social and linguistic construct. The journal did not practice
academic peer review
Scholarly peer review or academic peer review (also known as refereeing) is the process of having a draft version of a researcher's methods and findings reviewed (usually anonymously) by experts (or "peers") in the same field. Peer review is ...
and it did not submit the article for outside expert review by a physicist.
[ Reply by Alan Sokal.] Three weeks after its publication in May 1996, Sokal revealed in the magazine ''
Lingua Franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
'' that the article was a hoax.
The hoax caused controversy about the scholarly merit of commentary on the physical sciences by those in the humanities; the influence of
postmodern philosophy
Brian Duignan writes on the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' that Postmodern philosophy is a philosophical movement that arose in the second half of the 20th century as a critical response to assumptions allegedly present in modernist philosophical i ...
on social disciplines in general; and academic ethics, including whether Sokal was wrong to deceive the editors or readers of ''Social Text''; and whether ''Social Text'' had abided by proper scientific ethics.
In 2008, Sokal published ''
Beyond the Hoax
''Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy, and Culture'' is a 2008 book by Alan Sokal detailing the history of the Sokal affair in which he submitted an article full of "nonsense" to a journal and was able to get it published.
Reception
''The Times ...
'', which revisited the history of the hoax and discussed its lasting implications.
Background
![Alan Sokal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Alan_Sokal.jpg)
In an interview on the U.S. radio program ''
All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'', Sokal said he was inspired to submit the bogus article after reading ''
Higher Superstition
''Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science'' is a 1994 book about the philosophy of science by the biologist Paul R. Gross and the mathematician Norman Levitt.
Summary
Levitt states he is a leftist trying to save th ...
'' (1994), in which authors
Paul R. Gross
Paul R. Gross is a biologist and author, perhaps best known to the general public for ''Higher Superstition'' (1994), written with Norman Levitt. Gross is the University Professor of Life Sciences (Emeritus) at the University of Virginia; he previo ...
and
Norman Levitt
Norman Jay Levitt (August 27, 1943 – October 24, 2009) was an American mathematician at Rutgers University.
Education
Levitt was born in The Bronx and received a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1963. He received a PhD from Princeton Un ...
claim that some humanities journals will publish anything as long as it has "the proper leftist thought" and quoted (or was written by) well-known leftist thinkers.
Gross and Levitt had been defenders of the philosophy of
scientific realism
Scientific realism is the view that the universe described by science is real regardless of how it may be interpreted.
Within philosophy of science, this view is often an answer to the question "how is the success of science to be explained?" Th ...
, opposing postmodernist academics who questioned
scientific objectivity
Objectivity in science is an attempt to uncover truths about the natural world by eliminating personal biases, emotions, and false beliefs. It is often linked to observation as part of the scientific method. It is thus intimately related to the ai ...
. They asserted that
anti-intellectual
Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically mo ...
sentiment in
liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
departments (especially English departments) caused the increase of
deconstruction
The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...
ist thought, which eventually resulted in a deconstructionist critique of science. They saw the critique as a "repertoire of rationalizations" for avoiding the study of science.
Article
Sokal 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. What would matter would be ideological obsequiousness, fawning references to deconstructionist writers, and sufficient quantities of the appropriate jargon. After the article was published and the hoax revealed, he wrote:
The results of my little experiment demonstrate, at the very least, that some fashionable sectors of the American academic Left have been getting intellectually lazy. The editors of Social Text liked my article because they liked its conclusion: that "the content and methodology of postmodern science provide powerful intellectual support for the progressive political project" ec. 6 They apparently felt no need to analyze the quality of the evidence, the cogency of the arguments, or even the relevance of the arguments to the purported conclusion.
Content of the article
"Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity"
proposed that
quantum gravity
Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vi ...
has
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
political implications, and that the "
morphogenetic field
In the developmental biology of the early twentieth century, a morphogenetic field is a group of cells able to respond to discrete, localized biochemical signals leading to the development of specific morphological structures or organs. The sp ...
" could be a valid theory of quantum gravity. (A morphogenetic field is a concept adapted by
Rupert Sheldrake
Alfred Rupert Sheldrake (born 28 June 1942) is an English author and parapsychology researcher who proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture which lacks mainstream acceptance and has been criticized as pseudoscience. He has worke ...
in a way that Sokal characterized in the affair's aftermath as "a bizarre
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
idea.")
Sokal wrote that the concept of "an external world whose properties are independent of any individual human being" was "dogma imposed by the long post-Enlightenment hegemony over the Western intellectual outlook."
After referring skeptically to the "so-called scientific method", the article declared that "it is becoming increasingly apparent that physical 'reality is fundamentally "a social and linguistic construct." It went on to state that because scientific research is "inherently theory-laden and self-referential", it "cannot assert a privileged epistemological status with respect to counterhegemonic narratives emanating from dissident or marginalized communities", and that therefore a "liberatory science" and an "emancipatory mathematics", spurning "the elite caste canon of 'high science, needed to be established for a "postmodern science
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
provide
powerful intellectual support for the progressive political project."
Moreover, the article's footnotes conflate academic terms with
sociopolitical
Political sociology is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro Level of analysis, levels of analysis. Interested in the ...
rhetoric, e.g.:
Publication
Sokal submitted the article to ''Social Text'', whose editors were collecting articles for the "Science Wars" issue. "Transgressing the Boundaries" was notable as an article by a natural scientist; biologist
Ruth Hubbard
Ruth Hubbard (March 3, 1924 – September 1, 2016) was a professor of biology at Harvard University, where she was the first woman to hold a tenured professorship position in biology.
During her active research career from the 1940s to the 1960s ...
also had an article in the issue. Later, after Sokal revealed the hoax in ''Lingua Franca'', ''Social Text''
's editors wrote that they had requested editorial changes that Sokal refused to make,
and had had concerns about the quality of the writing: "We requested him (a) to excise a good deal of the philosophical speculation and (b) to excise most of his footnotes." Still, despite calling Sokal a "difficult, uncooperative author", and noting that such writers were "well known to journal editors", based on Sokal's credentials ''Social Text'' published the article in the May 1996 Spring/Summer "Science Wars" issue.
The editors did not seek
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
of the article by physicists or otherwise; they later defended this decision on the basis that ''Social Text'' was a journal of open intellectual inquiry and the article was not offered as a contribution to physics.
Responses
Follow-up between Sokal and the editors
In the May 1996 issue of ''Lingua Franca'', in the article "A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies", Sokal revealed that "Transgressing the Boundaries" was a hoax and concluded that ''Social Text'' "felt comfortable publishing an article on quantum physics without bothering to consult anyone knowledgeable in the subject" because of its ideological proclivities and editorial bias.
In their defense, ''Social Text''
's editors said they believed that Sokal's essay "was the earnest attempt of a professional scientist to seek some kind of affirmation from postmodern philosophy for developments in his field" and that "its status as parody does not alter, substantially, our interest in the piece, itself, as a symptomatic document." Besides criticizing his writing style, ''Social Text''
's editors accused Sokal of behaving unethically in deceiving them.
Sokal said the editors' response demonstrated the problem that he sought to identify. ''Social Text'', as an academic journal, published the article not because it was faithful, true, and accurate to its subject, but because an "academic authority" had written it and because of the appearance of the obscure writing. The editors said they considered it poorly written but published it because they felt Sokal was an academic seeking their intellectual affirmation. Sokal remarked:
''Social Texts response revealed that none of the editors had suspected Sokal's piece was a parody. Instead, they speculated Sokal's admission "represented a change of heart, or a folding of his intellectual resolve." Sokal found further humor in the idea that the article's absurdity was hard to spot:
Book by Sokal and Bricmont
In 1997, Sokal and
Jean Bricmont
Jean Bricmont (; born 12 April 1952) is a Belgian theoretical physicist and philosopher of science. Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), he works on renormalization group and nonlinear differential equations. Since 2004, ...
co-wrote ''
Impostures intellectuelles
''Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science'' (1998; UK: ''Intellectual Impostures''), first published in French in 1997 as french: Impostures intellectuelles, label=none, is a book by physicists Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont ...
'' (US: ''Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science''; UK: ''Intellectual Impostures'', 1998).
[
] The book featured analysis of extracts from established
intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
s' writings that Sokal and Bricmont claimed misused scientific terminology. It closed with a critical summary of
postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
and criticism of the
strong programme
The strong programme or strong sociology is a variety of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) particularly associated with David Bloor, Barry Barnes, Harry Collins, Donald A. MacKenzie, and John Henry. The strong programme's influence on ...
of
social constructionism
Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theory ...
in the
sociology of scientific knowledge
The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociolog ...
.
In 2008, Sokal published a followup book, ''
Beyond the Hoax
''Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy, and Culture'' is a 2008 book by Alan Sokal detailing the history of the Sokal affair in which he submitted an article full of "nonsense" to a journal and was able to get it published.
Reception
''The Times ...
'', which revisited the history of the hoax and discussed its lasting implications.
Jacques Derrida
The French philosopher
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
, whose 1966 statement about
Einstein's theory of relativity was quoted in Sokal's paper, was singled out for criticism, particularly in U.S. newspaper coverage of the hoax.
One weekly magazine used two images of him, a photo and a
caricature
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
, to illustrate a "dossier" on Sokal's paper.
Arkady Plotnitsky commented:
Even given Derrida's status as an icon of intellectual controversy on the Anglo-American cultural scene, it is remarkable that out of thousands of pages of Derrida's published works, a single extemporaneous remark on relativity made in 1966 (before Derrida was "the Derrida" and, in a certain sense, even before "deconstruction") . . . is made to stand for nearly all of deconstructive or even postmodernist (not a term easily, if at all, applicable to Derrida) treatments of science.
Derrida later responded to the hoax in "''Sokal et Bricmont ne sont pas sérieux''" ("Sokal and Bricmont Aren't Serious"), first published on 20 November 1997 in ''
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
''. He called Sokal's action "sad" for having trivialized Sokal's mathematical work and "ruining the chance to carefully examine controversies" about
scientific objectivity
Objectivity in science is an attempt to uncover truths about the natural world by eliminating personal biases, emotions, and false beliefs. It is often linked to observation as part of the scientific method. It is thus intimately related to the ai ...
.
Derrida then faulted him and Bricmont for what he considered "an act of intellectual
bad faith
Bad faith (Latin: ''mala fides'') is a sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another."of two hearts ... a sustained form of deception whic ...
" in their follow-up book, ''
Impostures intellectuelles
''Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science'' (1998; UK: ''Intellectual Impostures''), first published in French in 1997 as french: Impostures intellectuelles, label=none, is a book by physicists Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont ...
'': they had published two articles almost simultaneously, one in English in ''
The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...
'' on 17 October 1997 and one in French in ''
Libération
''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...
'' on 18–19 October 1997, but while the two articles were almost identical, they differed in how they treated Derrida.
The English-language article had a list of French intellectuals who were not included in Sokal's and Bricmont's book: "Such well-known thinkers as
Althusser
Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser ...
,
Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
, and
Foucault—who, as readers of the TLS will be well aware, have always had their supporters and detractors on both sides of the Channel—appear in our book only in a minor role, as cheerleaders for the texts we criticize." The French-language list, however, included Derrida: "''Des penseurs célèbres tels qu'Althusser, Barthes, Derrida et Foucault sont essentiellement absents de notre livre''" ("Famous thinkers such as Althusser, Barthes, Derrida and Foucault are essentially absent from our book").
According to Brian Reilly, Derrida may also have been sensitive to another difference between the French and English versions of ''Impostures intellectuelles''. In the French, his citation from the original hoax article is said to be an "isolated" instance of abuse, whereas the English text adds a parenthetical remark that Derrida's work contained "no systematic misuse (or indeed attention to) science." Sokal and Bricmont insisted that the difference between the articles was "banal." Nevertheless, Derrida concluded that Sokal was not serious in his method, but had used the spectacle of a "quick practical joke" to displace the scholarship Derrida believed the public deserved.
Social science criticism
Sociologist Stephen Hilgartner, chairman of
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
's
science and technology studies
Science and technology studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary field that examines the creation, development, and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts.
History
Like most interdisciplinary fie ...
department, wrote "The Sokal Affair in Context" (1997),
[
] comparing Sokal's hoax to "Confirmational Response: Bias Among Social Work Journals" (1990), an article by William M. Epstein published in ''
Science, Technology, & Human Values
''Science, Technology, & Human Values'' (''ST&HV'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research on the relationship of science and technology with society. The journal's editor-in-chief is Edward J. Hackett (Arizona State University). ...
''. Epstein used a similar method to Sokal's, submitting fictitious articles to real academic journals to measure their response. Though much more systematic than Sokal's work, it received scant media attention. Hilgartner argued that the "asymmetric" effect of the successful Sokal hoax compared with Epstein's experiment cannot be attributed to its quality, but that "
rough a mechanism that resembles confirmatory bias, audiences may apply less stringent standards of evidence and ethics to attacks on targets that they are predisposed to regard unfavorably."
As a result, according to Hilgartner, though competent in terms of method, Epstein's experiment was largely muted by the more socially accepted
social work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...
discipline he critiqued, while Sokal's attack on
cultural studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
, despite lacking experimental rigor, was accepted. Hilgartner also argued that Sokal's hoax reinforced the views of well-known pundits such as
George Will
George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian-conservative political commentator and author. He writes regular columns for ''The Washington Post'' and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC.Hadas Gold, Gold, Hadas (May ...
and
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
, so that his opinions were amplified by media outlets predisposed to agree with his argument.
The Sokal Affair extended from academia to the public press.
Anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
Bruno Latour
Bruno Latour (; 22 June 1947 – 9 October 2022) was a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist.Wheeler, Will. ''Bruno Latour: Documenting Human and Nonhuman Associations'' Critical Theory for Library and Information Science. Libraries ...
, criticized in ''Fashionable Nonsense'', described the scandal as a "tempest in a teacup." Retired
Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
-turned social scientist Gabriel Stolzenberg wrote essays criticizing the statements of Sokal and his allies, arguing that they insufficiently grasped the philosophy they criticized, rendering their criticism meaningless. In ''
Social Studies of Science
''Social Studies of Science'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers relating to the history and philosophy of science. The journal's editor-in-chief is Sergio Sismondo ( Queen's University). The journal was establishe ...
'', Bricmont and Sokal responded to Stolzenberg, denouncing his representations of their work and criticizing his commentary about the "
strong programme
The strong programme or strong sociology is a variety of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) particularly associated with David Bloor, Barry Barnes, Harry Collins, Donald A. MacKenzie, and John Henry. The strong programme's influence on ...
" of the sociology of science. Stolzenberg replied in the same issue that their critique and allegations of misrepresentation were based on misreadings. He advised readers to slowly and skeptically examine the arguments of each party, bearing in mind that "the obvious is sometimes the enemy of the true."
Influenced
Sociological follow-up study
In 2009, Cornell sociologist
Robb Willer
Robb Willer is an American sociologist.
Biography
During graduate school, Willer worked as a union organizer for the United Auto Workers.
Research
He and Matthew Feinberg developed the idea of "moral reframing".
Willer's other research on p ...
performed an experiment in which undergraduate students read Sokal's paper and were told either that it was written by another student or that it was by a famous academic. He found that students who believed the paper's author was a high-status intellectual rated it better in quality and intelligibility.
The "Sokal Squared" scandal
In 2017,
James A. Lindsay
James Stephen Lindsay (born June 8, 1979), known professionally as James A. Lindsay, is an American author, cultural critic, mathematician and conspiracy theorist. He is known for the grievance studies affair, in which he, Peter Boghossian and ...
,
Peter Boghossian
Peter Gregory Boghossian (; born July 25, 1966) is an American philosopher and pedagogist. Born in Boston, he was a non-tenure track assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University for ten years, and his areas of academic focus i ...
, and
Helen Pluckrose
Helen Pluckrose is a British author and cultural writer known for critiques of Critical Social Justice and promotion of liberal ethics, most notably in the grievance studies affair.
Education
Pluckrose completed a degree in English literature a ...
initiated "The Grievance Studies affair", a project to create bogus academic papers on cultural, queer, race, gender, fat, and sexuality studies and submit them to academic journals. Their intent was to expose problems in "grievance studies", a term they apply to a subcategory of these academic topics in which "poor science is undermining the real and important work being done elsewhere".
The hoax began in 2017 and continued into 2019, when it was halted after one of the papers caught the attention of journalists, who quickly found its purported author, Helen Wilson, to be nonexistent. By that time, four of the 20 papers had been published, three had been accepted but not yet published, six had been rejected, and seven were still under review.
Sokal III
In October 2021, the scholarly journal ''Higher Education Quarterly'' published a bogus article "authored" by "Sage Owens" and "Kal Avers-Lynde III". The initials stand for "Sokal III". The ''Quarterly'' retracted the article.
See also
*
Academese
Academese is a term referring to unnecessary jargon associated with the field of academia, particularly common in academic writing in humanities, and is contrasted with plain language. The term is often but not always pejorative, and occasionally c ...
*
*
* , a software developer known for his early hoax involving postmodern deconstruction at the 2nd International Conference on Cyberspace in 1991
*
* , an actor gave a lecture to a group of experts with almost no content but was praised
* The
Ern Malley affair, Australia's most infamous literary hoax
*
Grievance studies affair
The grievance studies affair, also referred to as the "Sokal Squared" scandal, was the project of a team of three authors—Peter Boghossian, James A. Lindsay, and Helen Pluckrose—to highlight what they saw as poor scholarship and eroding cri ...
*
*
* , a program that produces imitations of postmodernist writing
*
References
Footnotes
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
** – English translation.
*
*
*
**
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Alan Sokal Articles on the Social Text AffairAlan Sokal's own page with very extensive links; includes the original article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sokal Affair
1996 hoaxes
1996 in science
Academic journal articles
Academic scandals
Criticism of postmodernism
Duke University
Hoaxes in science
Hoaxes in the United States
Literary forgeries
Science and technology studies
Scientific misconduct incidents
Sociology of scientific knowledge