The universities,the social sciences,and liberal democracy

This paper shows how a number of the social sciences — sociology, economics, and anthropology in particular — came to have their modern form in the universities of the West. It argues that although their beginnings were salutary, their present state leaves much to be desired. In particular, far from supporting a democratic order, they are just as likely to undermine it. Sociology, for example, has abandoned its claim to truth and is given over to an insidious relativism. It undermines democratic values and gives the young little reason to believe that it is a discipline that can contribute anything to the betterment of society. There is, perhaps, some hope that the university, with its commitment to truth and to freedom of thought, will ultimately transform such wayward disciplines into something worth having.