ABSTRACT
I f we accept that an award-bearing course represents a form of action in which members of an institution attempt to control what counts as knowledge, how does that situation affect 'enquiry-based' courses? In an important sense, enquiry leads where it wi l l . The idea of l inking enquiry to 'courses' or 'academic years' and similar devices distorts the overriding criterion of the pursuit of truth. To this extent, joining a course to engage in enquiry might be regarded as a motivated form of irrationality. Put in these terms, the very act of becoming a course member carries w i th it the means of becoming an agent of one's own domination.
