ABSTRACT
Skepticism about texts and commitment to social justice have led social theorists and rhetoricians to show how forms of knowledge are infused with power. The chapter seeks to show a new kind of critical, rhetorical, postmodern social theory, one's need to appreciate the profound achievements of our orthodox opponents. The social sciences in Europe and the United States answered urgent political and public questions by providing models of the task of the scholar, the nature of knowledge, the workings of the public sphere, the conduct of discussion, and the education of the citizenry. Michel Foucault argued for an institutionalized social criticism. In his historical genealogies of major institutions of society, such as mental health, criminal justice, and the human sciences, and in his later analyses of power, Foucault sought to expose various modes of domination.
