Page 86 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 86
What Do We Know about the World?
of “postmodern cultural studies” devoted the special issue in question
to the phenomenon of the “science wars”. The expression “science wars”
referred to intellectual exchanges taking place in American academic
circles in the 1990s, focusing on questions about the nature of science,
scientific methodology and scientific knowledge. The main “war camps”
in this intellectual confrontation were represented on one side by adher-
ents of scientific realism and on the other by their postmodernist critics.
In one of the opening paragraphs of Sokal’s article, entitled “Trans-
gressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of
Quantum Gravity”, Sokal stated 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 scientific
“knowledge”, far from being objective, reflects 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 conse-
quently, that the discourse of the scientific community, for all its undeniable
value, cannot assert a privileged epistemological status with respect to coun-
ter-hegemonic narratives emanating from dissident or marginalized com-
munities. (Sokal, 1996; reprinted in the annotated version in Sokal, 2010: 9)
By arguing in favour of the thesis that social and physical “reality”,
together with purported objective knowledge of that reality, is in fact
a social and linguistic construct dependent on the power relations pre-
vailing in the framework of the culture which produces that construct,
Sokal apparently allied himself with postmodernist critics of the con-
cept of scientific objectivity.
In an article for Lingua Franca of May–June 1996, however, Sokal
revealed that the paper published in Social Text, ‘Transgressing the
Boundaries…’, was actually a hoax – a parody whose purpose was “to test
the prevailing intellectual standards” in “certain precincts of the Ameri-
can academic humanities” (Sokal, 1996a). Concerned by an apparent de-
cline in standards of intellectual rigour in these areas of education and
research, Sokal offered the following explanation of his motive in perpe-
trating the hoax:
[...] I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment:
Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies [...] publish an
article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered
the editors’ ideological preconceptions? (ibid.)
Sokal’s hoax and its subsequent revelation caused a huge succès de
scandale. The Sokal affair received extensive media coverage not only in
of “postmodern cultural studies” devoted the special issue in question
to the phenomenon of the “science wars”. The expression “science wars”
referred to intellectual exchanges taking place in American academic
circles in the 1990s, focusing on questions about the nature of science,
scientific methodology and scientific knowledge. The main “war camps”
in this intellectual confrontation were represented on one side by adher-
ents of scientific realism and on the other by their postmodernist critics.
In one of the opening paragraphs of Sokal’s article, entitled “Trans-
gressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of
Quantum Gravity”, Sokal stated 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 scientific
“knowledge”, far from being objective, reflects 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 conse-
quently, that the discourse of the scientific community, for all its undeniable
value, cannot assert a privileged epistemological status with respect to coun-
ter-hegemonic narratives emanating from dissident or marginalized com-
munities. (Sokal, 1996; reprinted in the annotated version in Sokal, 2010: 9)
By arguing in favour of the thesis that social and physical “reality”,
together with purported objective knowledge of that reality, is in fact
a social and linguistic construct dependent on the power relations pre-
vailing in the framework of the culture which produces that construct,
Sokal apparently allied himself with postmodernist critics of the con-
cept of scientific objectivity.
In an article for Lingua Franca of May–June 1996, however, Sokal
revealed that the paper published in Social Text, ‘Transgressing the
Boundaries…’, was actually a hoax – a parody whose purpose was “to test
the prevailing intellectual standards” in “certain precincts of the Ameri-
can academic humanities” (Sokal, 1996a). Concerned by an apparent de-
cline in standards of intellectual rigour in these areas of education and
research, Sokal offered the following explanation of his motive in perpe-
trating the hoax:
[...] I decided to try a modest (though admittedly uncontrolled) experiment:
Would a leading North American journal of cultural studies [...] publish an
article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered
the editors’ ideological preconceptions? (ibid.)
Sokal’s hoax and its subsequent revelation caused a huge succès de
scandale. The Sokal affair received extensive media coverage not only in
