Sokal affair

Sokal affair

The Sokal affair was a 1996 scholarly hoax in which physicist Alan Sokal submitted a deliberately nonsensical article to the cultural studies journal Social Text and later revealed the deception, provoking controversy across academia involving Alan Sokal, Social Text, New York University, Princeton University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Yale University, University of Chicago and many other institutions. The episode catalyzed debates among figures associated with postmodernism, post-structuralism, continental philosophy, critical theory, and scientific realism, implicating scholars connected to Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean-François Lyotard, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan, Pierre Bourdieu, Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, Paul Feyerabend, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Karl Popper, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Erwin Schrödinger.

Background

Alan Sokal, then a professor at New York University and a recipient of degrees from Harvard University and University of Oxford, trained in theoretical physics with links to research communities at Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The journal Social Text was edited by scholars affiliated with Duke University, Columbia University, SUNY Stony Brook, and others in the field of cultural studies influenced by figures such as Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Bourdieu, and Julia Kristeva. Debates at the time involved tensions between proponents of post-structuralism and advocates for scientific methodology associated with Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Paul Feyerabend, Philip Kitcher, Larry Laudan, and Nancy Cartwright. Earlier cross-disciplinary controversies and public disputes had involved personalities from New Republic (magazine), The Nation, Times Higher Education, The New York Times, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Publication and Hoax

Sokal submitted an article titled "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" to Social Text, during editorial cycles involving scholars connected to Duke University Press and editors with ties to Yale University and New York University. The submission drew on references to canonical works by Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Richard Feynman, Steven Weinberg, and John Archibald Wheeler, while invoking theorists such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean-François Lyotard, Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, and Donna Haraway. Social Text published the article in a 1996 issue alongside contributions by scholars affiliated with Cornell University, University of California, Santa Cruz, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan. Shortly after publication, Sokal revealed in Lingua Franca that the article was a parody, coordinated with an announced book project and public interventions involving editors at Social Text and critics from periodicals including The New Yorker, The Times Higher Education Supplement, Slate, and The Guardian.

Reactions and Debate

The revelation prompted immediate responses from editors and contributors tied to Social Text, and sparked letters and essays from prominent intellectuals at Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press. Commentators in outlets such as The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, The New Republic, and The Washington Post engaged scholars including Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty, Paul Boghossian, Noam Chomsky, Steven Shapin, Simon Schaffer, Bruno Latour, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, Slavoj Žižek, Cornel West, Martha Nussbaum, Nancy Fraser, Imre Lakatos's interpreters, and Thomas Kuhn's commentators. Debates ranged across academic forums at American Association for the Advancement of Science, Modern Language Association, American Philosophical Society, Royal Society, and conferences at Berkeley, Columbia, Oxford and Cambridge. Some defenders of Social Text accused Sokal of bad faith; others used the episode to critique methodological rigor in humanities departments associated with postmodernism and critical theory.

Impact on Academia and Postmodern Critique

The incident intensified scrutiny of interdisciplinary research practices involving scholars from physics, literary theory, cultural studies, philosophy of science, and science and technology studies. It influenced curricular and hiring discussions at Princeton University, Harvard University, MIT, Stanford University, Yale University, University of California system, and University of Oxford. The affair fueled publications by critics such as Paul R. Gross, Norman Levitt, Alan Sokal himself, and responses by scholars including Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, Fredric Jameson, Slavoj Žižek, Nancy Cartwright, Philip Kitcher, and Helen Longino. It contributed to public discourse in venues like Scientific American, Nature, Science, The Economist, and The Atlantic, and to books published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Princeton University Press, Routledge, and Harvard University Press. Subsequent controversies with parallels emerged around figures associated with history of science, gender studies, anthropology, sociology, and media studies.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

The hoax raised ethical questions discussed in professional codes at organizations such as American Physical Society, Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, Association of American Universities, and National Academy of Sciences. Legal commentators referenced libel and contract concepts in analyses appearing in American Bar Association Journal and deliberations at university legal offices including those at Columbia University and New York University. Debates engaged ethicists and philosophers associated with Peter Singer, Martha Nussbaum, Timothy Williamson, J.L. Austin's interpreters, Alasdair MacIntyre, and John Rawls on matters of academic honesty, peer review standards, and the responsibilities of editors at academic presses and journals.

Category:Academic controversies Category:Hoaxes Category:1996 controversies