Keep in mind the editors of Social Text did not believe Sokal’s article was actually sound philosophy. Not understanding it, they preferred to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Sokal is a physicist, and a publication like this would have been a major embarassment inside his field. So he had no choice not to disclose the hoax before anyone else (who maybe didn’t get the joke) would have commented.
We only know that’s what they said afterwards.
By the same argument, we only know it was intended to be a hoax because Sokal said so afterward....
Sokal is a physicist, and a publication like this would have been a major embarassment inside his field. So he had no choice not to disclose the hoax before anyone else (who maybe didn’t get the joke) would have commented.