The Social Text, Indeed

[Bruce Appelbaum]

     The NY Times has been carrying a lot on this.  
     
     There was a front page report on this in the NY Times on May 18.
     
     There was an op-ed page piece by Stanley Fish on May 22 denouncing 
     Sokal.
     
     Today's letters column is buzzing about the story and op-ed piece.
     
     All in all, a good time was had by few.
     
     If anybody's interested, the NY Times is on the www (www.nytimes.com).
     
     Today's letters will be available.  I don't know if the older news 
     article and op-ed piece can be retrieved through the website. However, 
     those of morbid curiosity can probably retrieve all of this through 
     the NY Times forum on America OnLine (Key @times).
     
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: The Social Text, Indeed
Author:  LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU at Internet
Date:    5/23/96 1:36 PM


     
I thought this item might be of interest, considering recent discussions 
here on science and its (mis)uses.
     
The most recent issue (46/47) of the academic journal SOCIAL TEXT is devoted 
to the issue of "science wars," in terms of critiques of (among other things) 
the presumed neutrality and objectivity of science.
     
The last essay in the issue, by Alan D. Sokal, is titled "Transgressing the 
Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity."
     
The article contains statements such as the following:
"It has thus become increasingly apparent that physical 'reality,' no less than 
social 'reality,' is at bottom a social and linguistic construct; that 
scienctific 'knowledge,' far from being objective, relfects and encodes the 
dominant ideologies and power relations of the culture that produced it;
that the truth claims of science are inherently theory-laden and self- 
referential; and consequently, that the discourse of the scientific community, 
for all its undeniable value, cannot assert a priveleged epistemological status 
with respect to counterhegemonic narratives emanating from dissident
or marginalized communities."
     
     
Well, foax, it turns out this is an elaborate ruse by Dr. Sokal, who wrote it 
as a parody and was apparently surprised to find it accepted by SOCIAL TEXT.
     
     
Chew on that as you will.  Two reservations, though:
     
1) it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to (15 pages of text, 12 more 
of footnotes, and 220 [!] citations);
     
2) the fraud was reported briefly in this week's NEWSWEEK, which is just the 
kind of publication that would pounce on this kind of thing.  I haven't checked 
the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it 
mentioned there as well.
     
     
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)