Heteroglossolalia 4

I've had a bit to say on the current flap over intelligent design in these United States. More will surely follow. For now, I offer a bracing and very widely applicable comment by a scholar who has - for me, at least - helped clarify a great deal about science in society:

"Once it is recognized that knowledge exists only through its reproduction and circulation, the importance of conflict becomes evident: conflict focuses and directs that circulation...The contested circulation of opposing knowledges…is a struggle for truth. Truth matters. Precisely because it matters, truth is often fiercely contested. And if we cannot stand outside that contest to assess it from a neutral standpoint, this does not mean that all claims to truth can be put forward on an equal basis."
Joseph Rouse. 1996. Beyond Epistemic Sovereignty. p.416