Yes, because Sokal didn’t achieve anything actually noteworthy. He deliberately chose a very bad and ill-regarded journal (not even peer-reviewed) to hoax. Don’t believe the hype.
Postmodernism contains stupendous quantities of cluelessness, introspection and bullshit, it’s true. However, it’s not a useless field and saying trivially stupid things is not “archetypal” any more than being a string theorist requires the personal abuse skills of Lubos Motl. Comparing the worst of the field you don’t like to the best of your own field remains fallacious.
To be fair to Sokal, he didn’t make such a huge fuss about it either; it was a small prank on his part, just having fun with people who were being silly. The problem is that the story resonates (“Sokal hoax” ~= “slays dragon of stupidity”) in ways that aren’t quite true.
Yes, because Sokal didn’t achieve anything actually noteworthy. He deliberately chose a very bad and ill-regarded journal (not even peer-reviewed) to hoax. Don’t believe the hype.
Postmodernism contains stupendous quantities of cluelessness, introspection and bullshit, it’s true. However, it’s not a useless field and saying trivially stupid things is not “archetypal” any more than being a string theorist requires the personal abuse skills of Lubos Motl. Comparing the worst of the field you don’t like to the best of your own field remains fallacious.
Didn’t know that. Fair enough.
To be fair to Sokal, he didn’t make such a huge fuss about it either; it was a small prank on his part, just having fun with people who were being silly. The problem is that the story resonates (“Sokal hoax” ~= “slays dragon of stupidity”) in ways that aren’t quite true.
Sokal also revealed the hoax as soon as his piece was published. He didn’t allow time for other people in the field to notice it.