Social Text had indeed published the essay without external review. Discussion of the hoax polarized scholarly discourse and even penetrated the popular press. Web pages were set up, conferences called, and symposia struck. The New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement weighed in with pro-Sokal articles by physicist Steven Weinberg and philosopher Paul Boghossian. Social Text editors do not speak for most sociology of science studies of the past two decades.
Confusion is understandable.
It is united only by a demystifying attitude towards science. Hausman cites as especially useful the research of Latour , Lynch, Collins, Pinch, Pickering , and numerous others, which has convinced some scholars that much of science is socially constructed. Fuller cites progress as a crucial contested term. Generally, science critics believe that the ideal of scientific progress is little more than a well-ingrained myth. Among scientists, however, it remains an article of faith.