A compelling defense of free speech against its new enemies, who
range from the mosques of Iran to the groves of American academe.
In place of Justice Holmes's old standard of truth competing in
"the marketplace of ideas," Rauch (The Outnation, 1992 - not
reviewed; contributing editor to National Journal) substitutes a
new one: that of "liberal science." Formulated by skeptical
epistemologists like Hume and Locke in reaction to the
authoritarian regulation of knowledge advocated by Plato, liberal
science sorts through the hurly-burly of conflicting claims of
truth, marginalizing those that cannot pass scrutiny while
accepting that even today's accepted truth may need to be revised
tomorrow. But after years of nurturing the spirit of intellectual
freedom and the pursuit of knowledge, this principle recently has
been shaken, with the defining moment being Western governments'
weak-kneed reaction to the 1989 death threat made by the Ayatollah
Khomeini against Salman Rushdie. Rauch divides challengers to free
speech into three camps: "fundamentalists," who believe truth is
obvious and not to be questioned; "egalitarians," who think that
the beliefs of all sincere people deserve equal respect; and
"humanitarians," who hold that one must never offend. But whether
they are Moslems enraged at negative portrayals of Islam,
creationists pressing to have their theory taught along with
evolution, or minorities imposing university codes against "hate
speech," all these groups wish to revive the Inquisition notion
that "people who hold wrong and hurtful opinions should be punished
for the good of society." Rauch's strength here lies in his
relentless insistence that liberal science, though hurtful at
times, is the best means of advancing knowledge and avoiding
"herdthink." Rauch, Jewish and gay, calls not just for toleration
but for "the hard self-discipline which requires us to live with
offense." A powerful salvo in the war over political correctness -
and a ringing reaffirmation of the principles of free thought as
conceived by Locke, John Stuart Mill, and others. (Kirkus Reviews)
Thou shalt not hurt others with words. That commandment looks
harmless, even admirable. But it is neither. As Jonathan Rauch
states in this groundbreaking book, "This moral principle is deadly
- inherently deadly, not incidentally so - to intellectual freedom
and to the productive and peaceful pursuit of knowledge". Americans
are used to thinking of liberal society as standing on two pillars:
the economic system of capitalism and the political system of
democracy. But a third pillar of liberalism, although little
heralded and often poorly understood, is just as important: the
system for producing knowledge. "Liberal science", as Rauch calls
it, performs the crucial task of developing knowledge by choosing
between conflicting views. In Kindly Inquisitors, Rauch explores
how that system works and why it has now become the object of a
more powerful ideological attack than at any time since the great
battles between science and religion. Moving beyond the First
Amendment, Kindly Inquisitors defends the morality, rather than the
legality, of an intellectual regime that relies on unfettered and
often hurtful criticism. After explaining the rules that make
science work, Rauch identifies three major threats. The first and
oldest is from fundamentalists - people who believe that truth is
obvious and so need not be questioned. Newer and more troubling are
the intellectual egalitarians, who hold that everyone's beliefs
deserve equal respect. And most problematic of all are the
humanitarians, who decry "verbal violence" and demand that no one
give offense. Rauch traces the attacks on free thought from Plato's
Republic to Iran's death decree against Salman Rushdie, and then to
America's campuses andnewsrooms. He provides an impassioned
rebuttal to the moral claims of all who would regulate criticism on
the grounds of compassion. Attempts to protect people's feelings,
though appealing on the surface, lead to the control of knowledge
by central authorities. "The new sensitivity is the old
authoritarianism in disguise", he writes, "and it is just as
noxious". Kindly Inquisitors is a refreshing and vibrant essay that
casts a provocative light on the raging debates over political
correctness and multiculturalism. Students and philosophers will
appreciate its penetrating analysis of science; citizens, its
passionate defense of unfettered criticism.
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