Abstract

In his newest book, Botwinick continues a project begun in earlier works: presenting a "generalized agnosticism" that can provide support for participatory democracy in a postmodern culture. To be sure, this project's premises are still far from certain. There is no reason to assume that our entire society is moving into a culture being shaped by postmodern philosophers, though Botwinick is correct that the acids of skepticism have eaten deeply into most traditional systems of belief. Unlike dogmatic skeptics, moreover, Botwinick does make clear that his own method can never escape entirely the taint of circularity. Like dialectic historicists and others who seek to relativize once settled opinions, skeptics, we are told, often hide the foundations of their own critical thinking. They therefore elevate to a privileged status their methods and views without acknowledging their epistemic limits.