This article offers an examination of posthumanist epistemology. Building on wider claims that "posthumanist" theorists risk disavowing the historicity of their concepts, the article asks why the posthumanist image of the researcher has proven attractive to humanities and social sciences scholarship in recent years. In examining this question the article suggests that posthumanist epistemology is premised upon a claim to the innocence of knowledge, a notion that the article traces back to the origins of modern philosophy in the work of John Locke and his view of the mind as a blank slate. Such an analysis will serve to underline the argument that claims to innocence are themselves strategically deployed epistemic tools that have political implications.