A preliminary response to Eduardo

My thanks to Eduardo for his posting on Authority and Reason. I need some more time to think about his challenging post before I could respond properly. However, his question has prompted another one that, in fairness, I think needs to be considered along with his. Should a scholar who thinks and writes from a perspective of what might be called “The Politics of Identity” be evaluated differently from a “very orthodox Catholic academic”? Assuming that both are sincere in their scholarship, would not some third party examining and critiquing their work do so in a similar fashion? However, if different standards are applied, why? It strikes me that both scholars could be asserting truth claims that might conflict when each addresses the same topics.    RJA sj