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PARTISAN REVIEW
rather that there is a way the world is. Thus, it is self-refuting for some–
one to claim in a public language that metaphysical realism is false, be–
cause a public language presupposes a public world, and that presupposi–
tion is metaphysical realism.
Though I will not develop it here, it seems that a similar argument
applies to objective standards of rationality. Again, to put it very crudely,
one can't make sense out of presenting a thesis, or having a belief, or
defending a view without presupposing certain standards of rationality.
The very notions of mental and linguistic representation already contain
certain logical principles built into them. For those who think that [ am
exaggerating the extent to which the traditional values are challenged, [
suggest they read the ACLS pamphlet from which I quoted above.
Another fallacious move made by the chall engers is to infer, from the
fact that the university's educational efforts invariably have political con–
sequences, that therefore the primary objective of the university and the
primary criteria for assessing its success or failure should be political. The
conclusion does not follow from the premise. Obviously, everything has
political consequences, whether it's art, music, literature, sex, or gastron–
omy. For example, right now you could be campaigning for the next
presidential election, and therefore this article has political consequences,
because it prevents you from engaging in political activities in which you
might otherwise be engaging.
[n
this sense,
everythillg
is political. But
from the fact that everything is political in this sense, it doesn't follow
that our academic
objectives
are political, nor does it follow that the cri–
teria for assessing our successes and fai lures are political. The argument, in
short, does not justifY the current attempts to use the classroom and the
curriculum as tools of political transformation.
A further fallacy concerns the notion of empowerment. The most
general form of this fa ll acy is the supposition that power is a property of
groups rather than of individuals and organizations. A moment's reflec–
tion will reveal that this is not true. Most positions of power in the
United States are occupied by middle-aged white males, but it does not
follow that power accrues to middle-aged white males as a group. Most
white males, middle-aged or otherwise, are as powerless as anyone else.
[n
these discussions, there is a fallacy that goes as follows: People assume
because most people in positions of power are white males that therefore
most white males are in a position of power. I hope the fallacy is obvi–
ous.
Finally, in my list of criticisms of the challengers, I want to point
out that we should not be embarrassed by the fact that a disproportion–
ately large percentage of the major cu ltural achievements in our society
have been made by white males. This is an interesting historical fact that
