The Thinker 131
alism and idealists, makes respectable the self- advancing tactics of
the marketplace.
The advent of academic philosophies such as neo- pragmatism
and deconstruction seemed to be of a piece with vari ous movements
of liberation that arose a little more than halfway through the last
century in Eu rope, Latin Ame rica, and North Ame rica. The theo-
rists had the aura of subversion about them. They seemed in accord
with aspirations to human equality and humane pleasure— and they
seemed to shake the walls of the academy, making the ivy tremble.
They were, needless to say, anti- Platonic: the large- scale Platonic
thinker was understood to be an ally of the oppressors in govern-
ment and society, who also had large- scale truths they wanted to im-
pose. It is worthwhile to consider how readily the most prestigious
institutions absorbed and digested these ostensibly rebellious intel-
lectual movements: deconstruction, pragmatism, new historicism,
Foucault’s critique of power. Why did the most established univer-
sities not rise in revolt against the new intellectual apostasy?
Maybe what inspired the debunkers was not hope for liberation
or equality but contempt for ideals. Gifted- deconstructionists taught
that Plato’s texts were so variable and inconsistent that they were
not readily readable. Figurative language distorted aspirations to co-
gent and clear sense at every turn. And if one could not read Plato
and emerge with a more or less unifi ed sense of his work, how could
one base a way of life on his thought? So let us put Plato and Plato’s
ideals aside.
The bourgeoisie, the culture of Self, does not fi nd ideals readily
tolerable, either. Ideals impede the one truly necessary pro ject, the
fulfi lling of Self- interests. The objectives of debunking theoretical
education rhyme well with certain bourgeois aims. For theoretical
education is all too often the dismantling of ideals and thus the
opening up of the Self ’s right to proceed as it wishes, and with a
good conscience. What appeared to be a rebellion of the professors