From Heterodox Academy, a discussion of Jonathan Rauch’s excellent new book, The Constitution of Knowledge. Here’s the HxA landing page for this video.
The production of knowledge thrives when universities value open inquiry, but recent trends in conformist thinking pose new threats to research, writing, and teaching. How do we combat conformist culture in our classrooms and research, while encouraging inquiry into unorthodox ideas? How can our epistemic institutions continue to seek and know truth? We were joined by HxA co-founder and Board Chair Jonathan Haidt for an in-depth discussion with Jonathan Rauch, author of The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth.
As Rauch states in the teaser, the system doesn’t work by magic. It requires all of us to participate in good faith:
None of which overcomes Asch’s work on conformity. I know that most Muslims consider Muhammad as the greatest – and last – Prophet. I’d update that to Asch. Conformity now rules the world.