SOURCE: Hollander, Paul. “The Attack on Science and Reason.” Orbis 38, no. 4 (fall 1994): 673-79.

In the following review, Hollander discusses the “attack on science” put forth by some prominent thinkers, and reviews recent books defending science against this attack. Hollander asserts that On Looking into the Abyss provides profound insights into problems facing American society and culture at the end of the twentieth century.

The American role in world affairs has always been in large measure determined by domestic conditions, not just economic and political ones but intellectual and cultural ones, too. That is especially the case in the present post-cold war period; with obvious and direct external threats no longer exerting compelling pressures, domestic factors have become more consequential. Under these conditions, prevailing levels of social cohesion, the cultural climate, the nature of domestic social and political conflicts, the beliefs of American elite groups, the attitude of intellectuals...