New Ways of Knowing: The Sciences, Society, and Reconstructive Knowledge

304 Pages·1987·17.746 MB·English

by  Marcus G. Raskin, Herbert J. Bernstein

New Ways of Knowing

NEW WAYS OF
KNOWING
The Sciences, Society,
and Reconstructive Knowledge
BY
MARCUS G. RASKIN 8c HERBERT J. BERNSTEIN
WITH
SUSAN BUCK-MORSS • NOAM CHOMSKY
MICHAEL GOLDHABER * EDWARD HERMAN
JOSEPH TURNER
Rowman 8c Littlefield
PUBLISHERS
Published in the United States of America in 1987
by Rowman & Littlefield, Publishers
(a division of Littlefield, Adams & Company)
81 Adams Drive, Totowa, New Jersey 07512
Copyright © 1987 by Rowman 8c Littlefield
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Raskin, Marcus G.
New ways of knowing.
Includes index.
1. Knowledge, Theory of. 2. Social sciences.
3. Science. 1. Bernstein, Herbert J.
II. Buck-Morss, Susan. 111. Title
BD161.R33 1987 121 87-4492
ISBN 0-8476-7462-2
ISBN 0-8476-7463-0 (pbk.)
91 89 87 88 90
5 3 1 2 4
Printed in the United States of America
For our wives,
Lynn Randels and Mary Bernstein,
participants and
colleagues

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
Herbert J. Bernstein i
1 Reconstruction and Its Knowledge Method
Marcus G. Raskin 8
2 Idols of Modern Science and the
Reconstruction of Knowledge
Herbert J. Bernstein 37
3 Toward a Reconstructive Political Science
Marcus G. Raskin and Herbert J. Bernstein 69
4 Exchanges on Reconstructive Knowledge
Noam Chomsky and Marcus G. Raskin 104
5 Ending the Faustian Bargain
Marcus G. Raskin 157
6 The Human Meaning of the Information Revolution
Michael Goldhaber 167
7 The Selling of Market Economics
Edward Herman 173
8 Semiotic Boundaries and the Politics of Meaning:
Modernity on Tour—A Village in Transition
Susan Buck-Morss 200
9 Seizing Power / Grasping Truth
Joseph Turner 237
10 Conclusion: A Manifesto of Reconstructive Knowledge
Marcus G. Raskin 268
Index 287

Acknowledgments
We thank our colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies, its trans­
national affilitate (TNI) and Hampshire College for their participation
and support of work on reconstructive knowledge. We have benefited
greatly from forthright criticisms and spirited discussions.
We are especially thankful to another group whom we count as part
of the invisible college of support. They act in their own lives in ways
that make clear that knowledge and affection are linked and important
guides to inquiry and action: Ed Janss, Cora Weiss, Peter Weiss, Phil
Stern, Ann Janss, Mel Raskin, Helen Hopps, Diana de Vegh, Joseph
Duffey, Richard Falk, Rusty Garth, Deborah Gunn, Evelyn Fox Keller,
Joseph Leggett, Felicia Lynch, Larraine Matusak, Jack Tooley, Everett
Mendelsohn, Harriet Barlow, Sidney Shapiro, the Levinson family,
Adele Simmons, Bernard Weissbourd, Gibson Winter.
We wish to thank Ron Gross, Julianne Halberstein, Jill Lawrenz,
Rachel Fershko, Robert Neill, Linda McCormack, Roberta Rosenau,
Nancy Fuchs. All have helped at critical stages in the preparation of the
manuscript and the continuation of the knowledge project.
Finally, we wish to thank our children, who suffered through innu­
merable telephone conversations between the authors and wrho urged us
onward—some with criticism and praise—all with love. Erika Raskin
Littlewood, Jamin Ben Raskin, Noah Annan Raskin, Eden McArtor
Raskin, Carolyn Joy Bernstein, Laila Jael Bernstein, and Keith Little-
wood.