Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought, Expanded Edition

Description

Tracing attacks on free speech from Plato's Republic to America's campuses and newsrooms, Jonathan Rauch provides an engaging and provocative attack on those who would limit free thought by restricting free speech. Rauch explores how the system for producing knowledge works in a liberal society, and why it has now become the object of a powerful ideological attack. Moving beyond the First Amendment, he defends the morality, rather than the legality, of an intellectual regime that relies on unfettered and often hurtful criticism. Kindly Inquisitors is a refreshing and vibrant essay, casting a provocative light on the raging debates over political correctness and multiculturalism. Acknowledgments Foreword by George F. Will 1. New Threats to Free Thought 2. The Rise of Liberal Science 3. The Politics of Liberal Science 4. The Fundamentalist Threat 5. The Humanitarian Threat 6. Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Afterword: Minorities, Moral Knowledge, and the Uses of Hate Speech Notes Index