Sokal
Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Tue, 24 Nov 1998 12:06:33 -0500
Paul Janse wrote, regarding the Sokal article:
> The editors of the journal an all the readers were evidently able and
> prepared to see some meaning which was never there.
Here is a link to the "reply" the those editors wrote in defense of
accepting and publishing the article. The text of the article itself
has evidently been taken off-line.
http://www.larecherche.cie.fr/FOR/C9701/SOKAL/WW52.html
It is interesting to consider that the article has several different
"meanings," at least one of which is a semi-stable poststructuralist
plea. Supposedly, those who understand the language and the tradition
of thought behind it, "understand" what the article is literally trying
to say--they get its "meaning." Those who don't understand the language
("hermeneutics," "transgressive," "Lacanian," and "hegemony" are offered
as examples) and who aren't familiar with the tradition of thought
behind it, don't get its literal meaning.
It has been widely suggested that Sokal himself didn't realize he was
making some sense.
--
Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu