human experience, have got to believe that Plato was not quite cor-
rect, even if on some level they probably must admit that all philos-
ophy, theirs included, is a footnote to his work.
But the quest for philosophic Truth, on the scope and scale that
Plato pursued, has all but disappeared. It is virtually gone from the
academy, where phi los o phers are engaged (often brilliantly) in de-
ciding what makes a true sentence or a valid argument. Passionately
addressing such issues, they have no time to ask the crucial Platonic
questions. What are good and bad? What are right and wrong?
What is justice? What is beauty? “This is not any chance conversa-
tion,” Plato’s Socrates says, “but a discussion about how we ought
to lead our lives.”
Nor does current pop u lar culture care much about philosophic
Truth. The average citizen now is a refl exive pragmatist. Though
he may not have read William James or John Dewey, he believes im-
plicitly that truth is what ever is best in the way of belief. Truth is
embodied in the way of looking at the world that will help get him
what he wants. The intellect is a practical organ, like a hand, that
guides the individual toward the fulfi llment of his desires. The mind
isn’t best used to seek eternal Truth: that is impractical, a waste of
time. The mind is a compass to get bearings in life; a calculator to
ascertain profi t and loss; a computer to plan one’s next move in life’s
chess match. What the Frankfurt School calls Instrumental Reason
rules the day. And anyone who graduated from college and took a
course in anthropology, or history, or sociology, knows that there
is no Truth, only truths. These truths are dependent upon histor-
ical context, group affi liation, tribal mores— and of course upon
race, class, gender, and sexuality.
In our culture, the phi los o pher has been eclipsed by the dissem-
inators of information. Knowledge now is information with imme-
diate practical value. The phi los o pher demands too much. His
books are hard to read, and what he asks of us by way of a virtuous
6 Polemical Introduction