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This is quite a story - if you haven't already read it, you might want to check it out. . . Michael Hoechsmann, OISE ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 21 MAY 1996 21:11:35 GMT From: D. Jason Nolan <[log in to unmask]> Newgroups: oise.general Subject: From NY Times >>>From this morning's New York Times, front page: >> >> May 18, 1996 >> >> Postmodern Gravity Deconstructed, Slyly >> >> >> >> By JANNY SCOTT >> >> [N] EW YORK -- A New York University physicist, fed up >> with what he sees as the excesses of the academic >> left, hoodwinked a well-known journal into publishing a >> parody thick with gibberish as though it were serious >> scholarly work. >> >> The article, entitled "Transgressing the Boundaries: >> Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum >> Gravity," appeared this month in Social Text, a journal >> that helped invent the trendy, sometimes baffling field >> of cultural studies. >> >> Now the physicist, Alan Sokal, is gloating. And the >> editorial collective that publishes the journal says it >> sorely regrets its mistake. But the journal's co-founder >> says Sokal is confused. >> >> "He says we're epistemic relativists," complained >> Stanley Aronowitz, the co-founder and a professor at >> CUNY. "We're not. He got it wrong. One of the reasons he >> got it wrong is he's ill-read and half-educated." >> >> The dispute over the article -- which was read by >> several editors at the journal before it was published >> -- goes to the heart of the public debate over left-wing >> scholarship, and particularly over the belief that >> social, cultural and political conditions influence and >> may even determine knowledge and ideas about what is >> truth. >> >> In this case, Sokal, 41, intended to attack some of the >> work of social scientists and humanists in the field of >> cultural studies, the exploration of culture -- and, in >> recent years, science -- for coded ideological meaning. >> >> In a way, this is one more skirmish in the culture wars, >> the battles over multiculturalism and college >> curriculums and whether there is a single objective >> truth or just many differing points of view. >> >> Conservatives have argued that there is truth, or at >> least an approach to truth, and that scholars have a >> responsibility to pursue it. They have accused the >> academic left of debasing scholarship for political >> ends. >> >> "While my method was satirical, my motivation is utterly >> serious," Sokal wrote in a separate article in the >> current issue of the magazine Lingua Franca, in which he >> revealed the hoax and detailed his "intellectual and >> political" motivations. >> >> "What concerns me is the proliferation, not just of >> nonsense and sloppy thinking per se, but of a particular >> kind of nonsense and sloppy thinking: one that denies >> the existence of objective realities," he wrote in >> Lingua Franca. >> >> In an interview, Sokal, who describes himself as "a >> leftist in the old-fashioned sense," said he worried >> that the trendy disciplines and obscure jargon could end >> up hurting the leftist cause. "By losing contact with >> the real world, you undermine the prospect for >> progressive social critique," he said. >> >> Norman Levitt, a professor of mathematics at Rutgers >> University and an author of a book on science and the >> academic left that first brought the new critique of >> science to Sokal's attention, Friday called the hoax "a >> lot of fun and a source of a certain amount of personal >> satisfaction." >> >> "I don't want to claim that it proves that all social >> scientists or all English professors are complete >> idiots, but it does betray a certain arrogance and a >> certain out-of-touchness on the part of a certain clique >> inside academic life," he said. >> >> Sokal, who describes himself as "a leftist and a >> feminist" who once spent his summers teaching >> mathematics in Nicaragua, said he became concerned >> several years ago about what academics in cultural >> studies were saying about science. >> >> "I didn't know people were using deconstructive literary >> criticism not only to study Jane Austen but to study >> quantum mechanics," he said Friday. Then, he said, he >> read "Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and its >> Quarrel With Science" by Levitt and Paul R. Gross. >> >> Sokal said the book, which analyzes the critique of >> science, prompted him to begin reading work by the >> critics themselves. "I realized it would be boring to >> write a detailed refutation of these people," he said. >> So, he said, he decided to parody them. >> >> "I structured the article around the silliest quotes >> about mathematics and physics from the most prominent >> academics, and I invented an argument praising them and >> linking them together," he said. "All this was very easy >> to carry off because my argument wasn't obliged to >> respect any standards of evidence or logic." >> >> To a lay person, the article appears to be an >> impenetrable hodgepodge of jargon, buzzwords, footnotes >> and other references to the work of the likes of Jacques >> Derrida and Aronowitz. Words like hegemony, >> counterhegemonic and epistemological abound. >> >> In it, Sokal wrote: "It has thus become increasingly >> apparent that physical 'reality,' no less than social >> 'reality,' is at bottom a social and linguistic >> construct; that scientific 'knowledge,' far from being >> objective, reflects and encodes the dominant ideologies >> and power relations of the culture that produced it." >> >> Andrew Ross, a co-editor of Social Text who also happens >> to be a professor at NYU, said Friday that about a >> half-dozen editors at the journal dealt with Sokal's >> unsolicited manuscript. While it appeared "a little >> hokey," they decided to publish it in a special issue >> they called Science Wars, he said. >> >> "We read it as the earnest attempt of a professional >> scientiSt to seek some sort of philosophical >> justification for his work," said Ross, director of the >> American studies program at NYU "In other words, it was >> about the relationship between philosophy and physics." >> >> Now Ross says he regrets having published the article. >> But he said Sokal misunderstood the ideas of the people >> he was trying to expose. "These are caricatures of >> complex scholarship," he said. >> >> Aronowitz, a sociologist and director of the Center for >> Cultural Studies at CUNY, said Sokal seems to believe >> that the people he is parodying deny the existence of >> the real world. "They never deny the real world," >> Aronowitz said. "They are talking about whether meaning >> can be derived from observation of the real world." >> >> Ross said it would be a shame if the hoax obscured the >> broader issues his journal sought to address, "that >> scientific knowledge is affected by social and cultural >> conditions and is not a version of some universal truth >> that is the same in all times and places." >> >> Home | Sections | Contents | Search | Forums | Help >> >> Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------- >> -- D. Jason Nolan [log in to unmask] Department of Curriculum Ontario Institute for Stupidity in Education University of Toronto (416)923-6641 x2528