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'''Social Text''' is a [[postmodern]] cultural studies journal at [[Duke University]]. It became notorious when [[Alan Sokal]] published ''Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity''. It was an article that was essentially [[jargon]] and nonsense with a few jokes thrown in, but because Sokal was a well-known [[physicist]] who seemingly promoted left-wing views, the journal accepted his entry and published it as fact. The day after his paper was published, Sokal announced in ''[[Lingua Franca]]'' that his entry had been a hoax and was basically "a pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense".

'''Social Text''' is a [[postmodern]] cultural studies journal published at [[Duke University]]. It became notorious when it accepted for publication ''Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity''<ref>http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/</ref> by the conservative physicist Alan Sokal. This article was a blatant [[parody]] of left-wing jargon, buzz words, and catch phrases.  Many of its sentences consisted of pure nonsense; others were obvious falsehoods or misrepresentations of science; mixed in were jokes that should have been evident to those "in the know."

 

The purpose of Sokal's hoax was to demonstrate that this journal would publish such nonsense simply because it desired the prestige lent by having a physicist parrot its liberal views, regardless of the fact that the expression of those views was so obviously nonsense. Sokal later wrote, "It's understandable that the editors of Social Text were unable to evaluate critically the technical aspects of my article (which is exactly why they should have consulted a scientist). What's more surprising is how readily they accepted my implication that the search for truth in science must be subordinated to a political agenda, and how oblivious they were to the article's overall illogic." <ref>http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/lingua_franca_v4/lingua_franca_v4.html</ref>

 

[[Category:Academic Journals]]

[[Category:Academic Journals]]