Alan Sokal's Hoax Brought into the Open a Widespread Reaction Against the Sesquipedalian Posturings of Postmodern Theory and the Futility of the Identity Politics that So Often Travels with It

For us, however, the greatest surprises have been pleasant ones. Chief among them was the international uproar occasioned by the publication of Alan Sokal’s now-famous hoax, “Transgressing the Boundaries: The Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,” in the trendy cultural studies journal Social Text. The ongoing saga of Sokal’s pleasantry is instructive on several levels. The joke arose from Sokal’s reading of our book. Originally, as a principled leftist, he suspected that we two might be conservatives as charged, advancing antiliberal agenda under the pretext of defending science. However, he ultimately found much of our argument persuasive. In fact, his own researches convinced him that we had in some respects understated the case. His dismay at the clear evidence that a once-vigorous intellectual tradition of radical dissent is slipping into irrationality prompted him to put aside physics for a few weeks in the fall of 1994 in order to compose his delightful parody. It was submitted to Social Text, in all apparent seriousness, early that winter. Unknown to Sokal at the time, that publication, under the leadership of Prof. Andrew Ross, was preparing a special issue on what it dubbed “the science wars.” The intention was to vindicate assorted poststructuralist, multicultural, and feminist critiques of science and to denounce their critics, most notably the depraved Gross and Levitt. Sokal’s piece, with its seconding and fulsome praise of such intentions, was snapped up by the editors.

The tainted issue appeared in due course (May 1996), Sokal’s revelation of the hoax appeared a few days later in Lingua Franca, and then all hell broke loose. Predictably, some conservatives crowed, citing the “Sokal Text” affair as further proof that left-wing sympathies equate to outright dementia (notwithstanding Sokal’s own leftist views). But the reaction of a large number of left-intellectuals was more lasting and perhaps more significant for the academy. Sokal’s hoax brought into the open a widespread reaction, years in the making, against the sesquipedalian posturings of postmodern theory and the futility of the identity politics that so often travels with it. Cutting-edge celebrities, long used to dictating the tone of political discussion in “progressive” circles, suddenly found themselves on the hot seat. As of this writing, the recriminations continue with no sign of abatement.

--Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt, preface to the 1998 edition of Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), e-book.