pt. 1. The "Social text" affair. The parody, annotated -- Transgressing the boundaries: an afterword -- Truth, reason, objectivity, and the Left -- Science studies: less than meets the eye -- What the "Social text" affair does and does not prove -- pt. 2. Science and philosophy. Cognitive relativism in the philosophy of science -- Defense of a modest scientific realism -- pt. 3. Science and culture. Pseudoscience and postmodernism: antagonists or fellow-travelers? -- Religion, politics and survival -- Epilogue: epistemology and ethics.