The Ideal of Intellectual Integrity, in Life and Literature

This paper offiers (i) an interpretation of Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh as an epistemological novel, focusing on its depiction of such intellectual vices as self-deception, hypocrisy, and sham inquiry, and its exploration of the growth of Ernest Pontifex's intellectual character; (ii) analyses of pseudo-belief and pseudo-inquiry; and (iii) an explanation of why the ideal of intellectual integrity is so often met with indifference or even hostilityÑin general, and in today's academy in particular.