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Implementing WP:PIQA (Task 26)
 
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Thanks much for this entry!! :-)
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== Similar incidents ==
Much and all as I think the excesses of postmodern philosophers deserve ridicule, this article is a fairly blatant violation of the neutral point of view. Please dig up what the journal and others said in its defence. --[[:Robert Merkel|Robert Merkel]]
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Not a lot. Backtracking, ad hominems and vaguries mainly. See for yourself: http://www.nyu.edu/pubs/socialtext/sokal.html
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The section "Similar incidents" bears a notice from November 2015 that it may stray too far from the topic, and invites discussion here. Sadly, in the one year and more that has elapsed since that notice was posted, no other editor has seen fit to comment. Possibly the editor who posted the notice may have got more traction with an [[WP:Request for Comment|RfC]]. FWIW, I'll give my opinion of the question, and hope to see some other comments here, before ... let's see, 2020? Who knows, I may even start an RfC myself ...
Actually, this looks like an entirely fair treatment to me--it lays out the facts of what happened and why, and summarizes the editor's response fairly. In fact, if the ''whole'' of the editor's response was included, it would be even more unfavorable to them, because they really emabarrass themselves. It should probably ''link'' to Soakl's own page and to ''Social Text''. --[[:Lee Daniel Crocker|LDC]]


*'''Remove''': I think that the list of "similar incidents" should be removed in its entirety, since it strays so far off-topic as to essentially constitute another article. That would leave only the reference to the {{cat|Academic_scandals}}, which would then no longer be a "Main category" reference. Better still would be to replace that reference by one to a new article on [[Academic publishing scandals]], incorporating the removed contents, also in the {{cat|Academic_scandals}}. If I can make time – and barring any better suggestions – I'll do so myself. [[User:Yahya Abdal-Aziz|yoyo]] ([[User talk:Yahya Abdal-Aziz|talk]]) 17:25, 16 December 2016 (UTC)
:The bit about the editors response was added after my initial comment. It is now substantially fairer. --[[:Robert Merkel|Robert Merkel]]
*'''Trim''': I would support trimming the section for length and only retaining a few of the well-sourced and most closely similar incidents. [[User:jmcgnh|<b><span style="color:#248F7D">&nbsp;&#8212;jmcgnh</span></b>]]<sup><small><b>[[User_talk:jmcgnh|<span style="color:#58D582">(talk)</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/jmcgnh|<span style="color:#8F7D24">(contribs)</span>]]</b></small></sup> 00:33, 17 December 2016 (UTC)
*'''Remove'''. If we trim it (or if we do nothing), it will continue to invite people to add more, and it will grow again. It could be a separate article though. I think [[Scientific publishing hoaxes]] or something like that would be preferable, since "scandals" would also include fraudulent papers and poor papers that had to be retracted - or were not but should have been. --[[User:Hob Gadling|Hob Gadling]] ([[User talk:Hob Gadling|talk]]) 19:09, 18 December 2016 (UTC)


:*I went ahead and split the section off into [[List of scholarly publishing hoaxes]]. [[User:Fgnievinski|fgnievinski]] ([[User talk:Fgnievinski|talk]]) 19:30, 5 March 2017 (UTC)
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== Derrida Cited for "Hoax" ==
<i>[People who add major sections to an article and then try to hide it as a "minor edit" are weasels IMHO] </i>


Why is Derrida the first citation for the SA being called a Hoax. The Lingua Franca issue published prior to Derrida's Le Monde piece does that same: http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9607/tsh.html <!-- Template:Unsigned --><span class="autosigned" style="font-size:85%;">—&nbsp;Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:2603:7000:3902:b10a:484e:8f3a:c810:4ae6|2603:7000:3902:b10a:484e:8f3a:c810:4ae6]] ([[User talk:2603:7000:3902:b10a:484e:8f3a:c810:4ae6#top|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/2603:7000:3902:b10a:484e:8f3a:c810:4ae6|contribs]]) </span>
I do this, to greater and lesser degrees. Sorry if it really annoys anyone. I believe the "Wikipedia contributing conventions" (or whatever we want to call them) do not discourage this. I look at it this way: anybody who's actually interested in the entry will take a look at it some time in the next few days and notice the changes.
:Fair enough, I swapped it out for that source instead. &#8209;&#8209;[[User:Volteer1|Volteer1]] ([[User talk:Volteer1|talk]]) 07:05, 7 May 2021 (UTC)


== Legacy ==
Personally, I am quite annoyed by people who feel it necessary to clutter up the list of recent changes with such notations as "corrected spelling", "added a new joke", etc., etc. I guess it takes all kinds to make a Wikipedia.


The article could use a Legacy section because it is being discussed to this day. Critics of the current university and peer-review system will bring this up on a daily basis. Many detractors of mainstream academia want more experiments like the Sokal Hoax to test journal's integrity. At the same time, Sokal continues to be scathingly criticized by those who point out that peer-review processes aren't set up to detect insincerity on the part of the writer, and that the current peer-review protocols stress distinction between considering an article to be worthy of publication and considering the article to be genuinely good or insightful. [[Special:Contributions/2601:18D:C180:F6A0:0:0:0:718E|2601:18D:C180:F6A0:0:0:0:718E]] ([[User talk:2601:18D:C180:F6A0:0:0:0:718E|talk]]) 00:30, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
:I agree - spelling and punctuation changes *are* minor edits, and should be marked as so. But adding an entirely new paragraph without registering it in "recent changes" smacks of trying to be subversive. Everyone relies on the "recent changes" list to keep track of what is being dealt with currently. As it turns out, this new paragraph was very good, and it added balance to the entire article (you'll notice I did nothing to it but remove a HR). But still, it would have been nice to know it had been added, and it certainly was not a "minor" edit. - MB


== Why delinkify? ==
::Why don't you just set your preferences so that minor edits show up in the list of recent changes? People have wildly different ideas as to what constitutes a "minor edit", so I find it's best to ignore the distinction (although I try to mark my own edits in an appropriate way). --[[:Zundark|Zundark]], 2001 Oct 16


{{reply|AlsoWukai}} Many of these terms are not familiar and I linked those. Why delinkify? [[User:Greatder|Greatder]] ([[User talk:Greatder|talk]]) 06:19, 24 October 2022 (UTC)
<b>Everything</b> about Wikipedia is subversive by traditional publishing standards. :-) Thanks, MB, for your thoughts on this (sincerely). I will consider changing my contributing style. But please note that there is nothing, so far as I know, in Wikipedia to prevent or even particularly discourage people from doing things the way I have been. Maybe I'll change. Maybe others won't. That's Wikipedia.


:Not sure, but there may be [[WP:SEAOFBLUE]] problems here, plus, I'm not sure whether the given links help the reader understand the ''sokal affair''. The point of the quote is to highlight the [[gobbledygook]] that was submitted as the text, and not necessarily to explain to the reader these concepts as they are at best tangential to the sokal affair. [[User:Theheezy|Theheezy]] ([[User talk:Theheezy|talk]]) 09:42, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
:No, there is nothing to prevent you from doing things how you want. If you get some minor little thrill from trying to make changes subversively, then go right ahead. You have to get your kicks somehow. - MB

Ouch. I thought that was uncalled for. I try to use "sorry", "thanks", and ":-)" in the appropriate places. I'm not trying to bug you or anybody else here. Have a good one.
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I think this article needs to be edited to bring it into line with [[:neutral point of view|neutral point of view]]. I agree 100% with its bias, by the way. --[[:LMS|LMS]]

I have to agree. The article is still fairly POV. Sokal's hoax has had minimal effect on the humanities, and there is a reason for this - ultimately, the editors of <i>Social Text</i> are right that one of the thing's Sokal's credentials are supposed to mean is that he can be trusted not to deliberately screw over a journal like that. In other words, they shouldn't have had to check for a hoax. Sokal was clearly qualified to write about what he did. Beyond that, Sokal shot himself in the foot with <i>Fashionable Nonsense</i>, where it was clear that he didn't understand postmodern philosophy at all.

I think the article would benefit greatly from being expanded to talk about academic responses to the affair outside of <i>Social Text</i>. Many, many people have weighed in on the Sokal affair, both in its immediate aftermath and more recently. --[[:Snowspinner|Snowspinner]]

:I disagree with your claims about ''Fashionable Nonsense''. Whether or not Sokal understands postmodern philosophy is besides the point of a large part of ''Fashionable Nonsense'', which is that some so-called "thinkers" use scientific concepts beyond their grasp, showing intellectual dishonesty. I may even go as far as to say that Sokal's argument is that there's not much to understand in postmodern philosophy at all, and that we should ponder its relevance as an academic discipline. [[User:David.Monniaux|David.Monniaux]] 17:26, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 20:10, 11 February 2024


Similar incidents[edit]

The section "Similar incidents" bears a notice from November 2015 that it may stray too far from the topic, and invites discussion here. Sadly, in the one year and more that has elapsed since that notice was posted, no other editor has seen fit to comment. Possibly the editor who posted the notice may have got more traction with an RfC. FWIW, I'll give my opinion of the question, and hope to see some other comments here, before ... let's see, 2020? Who knows, I may even start an RfC myself ...

Derrida Cited for "Hoax"[edit]

Why is Derrida the first citation for the SA being called a Hoax. The Lingua Franca issue published prior to Derrida's Le Monde piece does that same: http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9607/tsh.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:7000:3902:b10a:484e:8f3a:c810:4ae6 (talkcontribs)

Fair enough, I swapped it out for that source instead. ‑‑Volteer1 (talk) 07:05, 7 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Legacy[edit]

The article could use a Legacy section because it is being discussed to this day. Critics of the current university and peer-review system will bring this up on a daily basis. Many detractors of mainstream academia want more experiments like the Sokal Hoax to test journal's integrity. At the same time, Sokal continues to be scathingly criticized by those who point out that peer-review processes aren't set up to detect insincerity on the part of the writer, and that the current peer-review protocols stress distinction between considering an article to be worthy of publication and considering the article to be genuinely good or insightful. 2601:18D:C180:F6A0:0:0:0:718E (talk) 00:30, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Why delinkify?[edit]

@AlsoWukai: Many of these terms are not familiar and I linked those. Why delinkify? Greatder (talk) 06:19, 24 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure, but there may be WP:SEAOFBLUE problems here, plus, I'm not sure whether the given links help the reader understand the sokal affair. The point of the quote is to highlight the gobbledygook that was submitted as the text, and not necessarily to explain to the reader these concepts as they are at best tangential to the sokal affair. Theheezy (talk) 09:42, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]