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Nazi science"; misinformation about homosexuality's being a 'disease,'
or blacks' being inferior or whatever, does hurt people. But all misin–
formation hurts people ... and unfettered criticism is the cure, not the
disease."
Both at the beginning of the book and at the end Rauch wonders
aloud whether he is being too alarmist. I think not; in fact, I am not
sure he is quite alarmist enough. He does not mention, but I should, the
dismal jargon that has begun to be heard on the radical wing of
academic epistemology - "hegemonic discourse," "exclusionary meta–
narrative," "the privilege of disadvantage" - signals that the task is well
underway of articulating a theoretical "justification" of the idea that
genuine, critical inquiry is impossible or undesirable. Thanks to Rauch's
simple but useful categories, one can hear, in this jangle of jargon, the
fundamentalist theme - "women (or blacks, or 'oppressed people' gen–
erally) are epistemologically privileged"; the egalitarian theme - "we
need a democratic epistemology"; the humanitarian theme - "the
Enlightenment meta-narative is exclusionary, offensive to those it
marginalizes. "
Rauch himselfjokes good-naturedly about epistemology's public im–
age ("if you want to clear the room at a cocktail party, say
'epistemology'''), and describes epistemological theorists as "cobweb-be–
clothed." This book is a welcome breath of fresh air; let us hope that it
will not only blow away some of those old cobwebs, but also, by alert–
ing us to the real-world consequences of the most abstract-seeming epis–
temological theories, provoke more strenuous efforts to ensure that the
new rhetoric against inquiry gets (to use one of Rauch's favorite words)
decisively"debunked."
SUSAN HAACK
