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Chastened, Not Stirred: The "Secret Agents" of Literature Departments Reap What They Sow

Before he died in 2003, Bernard Williams argued that the current ambivalence towards truth and truthfulness, still characteristic of much contemporary philosophy and literary theory, was likely to have consequences for politics. Williams called to account those whom he called the "émigrés from the world of real power, the Secret Agents of literature departments," for their anti-truth theorizing and "café politics."¹ The rhetoric of political urgency adopted by such intellectuals, Williams argued, was rightly despised both by those who take liberal politics seriously and by those who do not. The net result of neglecting truth, Williams thought, was to weaken...