It's important to understand that structuralism-post-structuralism-postmodernism is basically a far-left political movement. When the workers failed to overthrow capitalism, when the Soviet Union turned into a dreary dictatorship, and when the newly-independent colonies of Africa failed turn into social paradises, many leftist intellectuals looked around for a new way to attack capitalism.
What they came up with was a social-constructivist, radical relativist attack that goes back to Nietzsche, Kant, Hume, and ultimately Plato's two-world view of reality. This was supposed to work because the argument for capitalism is based on a belief that reality is such that it works better for increasing human well-being than any other economic system.
What is interesting is that the postmodernists are themselves not really radical relativists. They believe, for instance, that famine is a real phenomenon and that it is truly bad. Their idea was that deconstructionist arguments would cleanse people of their capitalist ideology, and then their minds would be open to see the truths of socialism. Needless to say, this strategy was a failure.
It is also important to understand that the hoax was not a critique of the whole political left. Sokal identify with the left himself.[0] The hoax was aimed at a specific group of left-wing literary scholars.
What they came up with was a social-constructivist, radical relativist attack that goes back to Nietzsche, Kant, Hume, and ultimately Plato's two-world view of reality. This was supposed to work because the argument for capitalism is based on a belief that reality is such that it works better for increasing human well-being than any other economic system.
What is interesting is that the postmodernists are themselves not really radical relativists. They believe, for instance, that famine is a real phenomenon and that it is truly bad. Their idea was that deconstructionist arguments would cleanse people of their capitalist ideology, and then their minds would be open to see the truths of socialism. Needless to say, this strategy was a failure.