Physics vs. Social Text

Scientists defend “impersonal, objective truth” against the postmodern claim that there is no truth, only interpretations. The hoax on cultural studies orchestrated by a physicist, Alan Sokal, has highlighted this perspective. Sokal's disclosure of the hoax and subsequent polemics has ripped through the complacency of academic disciplines, exposing the fragility of academic integrity and raising questions concerning the function of peer review. Sokal submitted a bogus article for the May 1996 issue of Social Text devoted to “Science Wars.” On Sokal's own account, the Social Text essay feigned an earnest reflection on the political and philosophical implications of recent physics research for cultural criticism

Art · Criticism · Epistemology · Hoax · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Postmodernism · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies