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PARTISAN REVIEW
cated thinking at elite universities, thinking so dominant that it is de–
clared in a publication of the American Council of Learned Societies to
reflect "the consensus of most of the dominant theories" of our time.
Going further, a leading literary theorist,
J.
Hillis Miller, has declared the
"universal triumph of theory" - referring not to a single theory but to
the cluster of postmodern views that includes deconstructionist, Marxist,
feminist, and related theories of literary and cultural interpretation.
While it is not clear how many faculty fully avow the transformationist
position, the ideas that legitimate it - such as the critique of truth and
objectivity and the emphasis on race, class, and gender - are now com–
monplaces of academic discussion at colleges and universities across the
country.
The postmodern argument for the transformationist view is particu–
larly powerful because it directly challenges the traditional university's
premise - that the pursuit of truth is a desirable and even possible goal.
Once the pursuit of truth is rejected as a goal, "everything is permitted. "
Once the pursuit of disinterested truth is debunked, appeals to such
commonplaces of liberal learning as objectivity, respect for reason , and
academic freedom become question-begging.
It is this postmodern argument for the transformationist view that I
will consider here. To evaluate the argument, one must first understand
what it is, a task made difficult by the absence of a canonical statement.
One tends to find separate discussions - here an attack on objectivity,
there a discussion of critical pedagogy, perh aps with undeveloped
allusions to each other - but no systematic presentation of the argument
from beginning to end. But the separate discussions do not form an
inchoate mass; they reflect a coherent view that contains an implicit
argument. The following is an attempt to articulate that argument, step
by step, as a prelude to critical commentary. I have tried to present the
argument in the language, and in some cases the very words, of its advo–
cates.
II. The Argument
The Transformationist Thesis:
The aim of higher education should be
not the pursuit of truth but social transformation.
Step
1:
Perspectives.
Metaphysi cal realism naively assumes that there is a
single, definitive description of reality which reason has the power to dis–
cern and that every text yields a single, definitive reading. But in fact,
there are many interpretations of reality, many readings of every text.
Each represents only a perspective: "All thought inevitably derives from
particular standpoints, perspectives, and interests.... "
Step
2:
Relativism:
No single perspective on reality can claim to be
