The classics of social theory have a peculiar status: our current list is the product of past academic strategizing, and the list of favored classics has changed. Currently there is a process of replacing them with older writers who better fit current concerns, and to cancel those who hold the wrong views, or are of the oppressor class, in order to provide epistemic justice for those who don’t deserve their status and uplift those who were wrongly neglected. From an instrumental, careerist point of view, adapting to these changes makes sense. From the point of view of judgement, which differs from the capacity to produce, it does not. Exclusions narrow our range of reference and our capacity to assess in the present. We owe ourselves, and them, not only temporary, fashion driven justice but a larger capacity of judgement detached from the instrumentalization of scholarship.

社会理论的经典有一个特殊的地位：我们现在的榜单是过去学术谋略的产物，青睐经典的榜单已经发生了变化。目前有一个过程是用更适合当前关注点的老作家来取代他们，并取消那些持有错误观点的人，或者是压迫阶级的人，以便为那些不配得到他们地位的人提供认识上的正义和提升那些被错误忽视的人。从工具主义、野心家的角度来看，适应这些变化是有道理的。从与生产能力不同的判断的角度来看，它没有。排除范围缩小了我们目前的参考范围和评估能力。我们欠自己和他们，不仅是暂时的，