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PARTISAN REVIEW
range of thought and argument possible to liberal or left perspectives.
The identification of the debasement of a position with the position it–
self does no service to the intellectual life.
The interest in cultural diversity, the emergence of the women's
movement, the concern with the decolonization of the third world, the
changing character of the student body: these are facts of our cultural
life. There are a number of intellectuals who respect these facts and have
been thinking and writing creatively and unfashionably about the current
situation. Leszek Kolakowski and Tzvetan Todorov come to mind.
What distinguishes their work is a rare combination of respect for differ–
ence and a belief in the idea of a common humanity. Both writers have
experienced imperialist oppression, though not from the West, the agent
of imperialism usually invoked in the academy. Their skepticism, which
protects them against ideo logical dogmatism, is not of the radical kind
that makes genuine conviction impossible. In their rethinking of the
Enlightenment, they represent a belief in the values of reason, intellectual
honesty and clarity as the foundation of our cu ltural life . They are signs
of a possible future.
SUSAN HAACK
Knowledge and Propaganda:
Reflections of an Old Feminist
The philosophy which is now in vogue ... cherishes certain tenets
.. . which tend
to
a deliberate and factitious despair, which . .. cuts
the sinews and spur of industry.... And all for .. . the miserable
vainglory of having it believed that whatever has not yet been discov–
ered and comprehended can never be discovered or comprehended
hereafter.
- Francis Bacon
I
have been a feminist since the age of twelve, when I got the top grade
in my first chemistry exam, and the boy who got the next highest grade
protested indignantly that it wasn't
fair:
"Everyone knows girls can't do
chemistry." And, sin ce I have been working in theory of knowledge for
more than a decade now, I think I qualifY as an ep istemologist. So I
must be a feminist epistemologist, right? Wrong; on the contrary, I think
