Review: On Looking into the Abyss: Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society by Gertrude Himmelfarb

Jones, D. B., and Paula Marantz Cohen. Modern Language Studies 24, no. 3. 1994.

Abstract:

Gertrude Himmelfarb admits to being “a real live metaphysical prig,” Richard Rorty’s term for those who persist in believing there is a reality to be explored and a truth to be discovered. She regards the postmodern denial of the existence of reality and truth as not merely wrong, but intellectually dishonest and morally irresponsible. In the seven recent essays collected here, she ranges across history, literature, and philosophy to isolate and expose barbarous fallacies that she believes result from this denial.

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