Page 93 - 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. 93
the sokal affair and beyond: on the strategic
use of parody in the »science wars« 93
cifically, the main point of its application is to ridicule the other, intel-
lectually abusive party and to make them feel for themselves the nega-
tive and destructive effects of the subversion of intellectual standards.
The successful application of this strategy presupposes that the tar-
geted audience possesses sufficient knowledge of the phenomena which
constitute the object of parody or satire and that the audience shares
the same negative value attitude towards this object. These conditions
are necessary to ensure that the parodic intention of the author is un-
derstood and that the argumentative impact is fully realised. Otherwise
this strategy could either miss its target or have a self-defeating effect –
increasing rather than decreasing the intellectual appeal and popularity
of the parodied works.
The application of the “fighting fire with fire” strategy raises seri-
ous issues concerning communicational ethics. This is due to the lack
of genuine commitment on the part of the person using this strategy to
the opinions which they advance in the discursive interaction, potential-
ly involving an element of deceptiveness in the communication process.
In order to avoid the danger of producing “meta-level” subversion, this
strategy should also be applied with great caution.
4. The Strategic Aspects of Sokal’s Use of Parody
The central idea of this paper, as mentioned in the introduction, is
the proposal that Sokal’s parody may be treated as a representative exam-
ple of the application of a “fighting fire with fire” strategy. This idea will
be elaborated using the following elements – triggers, goals, conditions
of successful application and weak points of the strategy – as key param-
eters for the analysis, contextualised in the particular circumstances of
the Sokal affair. At the same time, occasional comparisons with other
strategies will make it possible to better perceive the specificities of its
nature and application.
4.1. Triggers for the Activation of the Strategy
In the earlier section on theoretical analysis (2.4), it was suggest-
ed that the main trigger for the application of a “fighting fire with fire”
strategy is the identification of some form of argumentative subversion
followed by the impression that its direct, immediate blocking is either
impossible or implausible.
In Sokal’s case, as he says himself, it was his reading of Higher Super-
stition (1994) by Paul Gross and Norman Levitt that first led him to pur-
use of parody in the »science wars« 93
cifically, the main point of its application is to ridicule the other, intel-
lectually abusive party and to make them feel for themselves the nega-
tive and destructive effects of the subversion of intellectual standards.
The successful application of this strategy presupposes that the tar-
geted audience possesses sufficient knowledge of the phenomena which
constitute the object of parody or satire and that the audience shares
the same negative value attitude towards this object. These conditions
are necessary to ensure that the parodic intention of the author is un-
derstood and that the argumentative impact is fully realised. Otherwise
this strategy could either miss its target or have a self-defeating effect –
increasing rather than decreasing the intellectual appeal and popularity
of the parodied works.
The application of the “fighting fire with fire” strategy raises seri-
ous issues concerning communicational ethics. This is due to the lack
of genuine commitment on the part of the person using this strategy to
the opinions which they advance in the discursive interaction, potential-
ly involving an element of deceptiveness in the communication process.
In order to avoid the danger of producing “meta-level” subversion, this
strategy should also be applied with great caution.
4. The Strategic Aspects of Sokal’s Use of Parody
The central idea of this paper, as mentioned in the introduction, is
the proposal that Sokal’s parody may be treated as a representative exam-
ple of the application of a “fighting fire with fire” strategy. This idea will
be elaborated using the following elements – triggers, goals, conditions
of successful application and weak points of the strategy – as key param-
eters for the analysis, contextualised in the particular circumstances of
the Sokal affair. At the same time, occasional comparisons with other
strategies will make it possible to better perceive the specificities of its
nature and application.
4.1. Triggers for the Activation of the Strategy
In the earlier section on theoretical analysis (2.4), it was suggest-
ed that the main trigger for the application of a “fighting fire with fire”
strategy is the identification of some form of argumentative subversion
followed by the impression that its direct, immediate blocking is either
impossible or implausible.
In Sokal’s case, as he says himself, it was his reading of Higher Super-
stition (1994) by Paul Gross and Norman Levitt that first led him to pur-
