[The Sokal Hoax ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair?wprov=sfla1) was seen as a good example of how the humanities can be unscientific nonsense. The divide between the two cultures as Snow has put it didnt stop after the Hoax, but a new discussion has been opened in what is called the science wars. Press forward, and you will have Postmodernism being smashed on the Internet and brought up in discussions about nihilism and Identity Politics.
Yuk. Excuse my language. But a what was Sokal's point ? He wanted to clarify how Postmodern theorists were talking nonsense about Physics and Mathematics. This I would agree with Sokal on. Nonsense indeed does exist in theory. Epistemological nonsense. A theory can only go far enough.
But, I cant understand why someone would make a hoax to make this point ? A hoax published in a scientific journal only means the failure of that journal.
Sokal wanted to say that "Postmodern discourse is nonsense here is how..". He could have looked at few pages of The Order of Things or Against Method. Those are closer to his expertise, but he toke shots at writers who were not completely talking nonsense. But rather exploring new dimensions of theory that nobody wants to explore. This explanation may not be appreciated by empirical standards or the laws of quantum mechanics.
Imagine Plato is called nonsense for exploring the transcendence of mathematics, or Kepler's work was called wrong for his reasoning in faith. As interpretations, how wrong they are, can not be derived at without facts.
Sokal wrote a book called fashionable nonsense to critique Postmodern theorists in detail. Sokal in the book, ironically, fails to provide any solutions to the problem which he claims to tackle - that reality is not socially constituted by language alone. Ironically, by not looking at the main claims of postmodernism and responding to them critically - For example as Habermas does- he becomes with his hoax the psuedo-postmoderisnt.