What’s Wrong with Our Universities? with Steven Pinker | Ep 08

Are our higher education institutions still nurturing true intellectual diversity? Our guest today is Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard, and today, we'll be exploring the growing concerns within higher ed that institutions are turning into echo chambers, stifling dissent and censoring certain perspectives.
In this thought-provoking episode, we'll be discovering the challenges to academic freedom in the era of cancel culture. We'll explore how questioning a consensus can now come at a cost, impacting the pursuit of truth within academic institutions. We'll also uncover the story of the Council for Academic Freedom at Harvard, which was formed to combat these challenges.
Join us as we delve into policies protecting free speech, and the vital role of civil discourse in the academic community. Together, we'll navigate the complex landscape of universities, grappling with the delicate balance between common knowledge and the suppression of dissenting opinions.
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About Steven:
Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He was Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary and writes frequently for the New York Times, the Guardian, and other publications. His twelfth book, published in 2021, is called Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.
#heterodoxoutloud #stevenpinker #johntomasi

[@HeterodoxAcademy]

We encountered audio-related issues while recording this episode. We apologize for the sound quality. Thanks for listening!

[@jgonsalk]

Sounds like an awesome discussion and I am still checking it out. I think the issue is over-compression and a fairly aggressive noise gate. But I'm assuming the Shure is working. If it didn't, then maybe you're trying to clean up the camera audio or something like that which would be tough. Or was it something else?

[@HeterodoxAcademy]

@@jgonsalk Yep, you know how this works.

[@MrTahuna333]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering what had happened to my ears! Very hard to listen to sadly

[@jclaer]

It sounds like you were speaking from lying in bed.

[@Vanadis240]

It's wonderful to have this urgently needed interview with Steven Pinker. Too bad the audio makes it really difficult to listen to. But thank you for the work and effort.

[@ProfessorMcGuigan]

Professor here - so many things I cannot say in class or risk getting burned at the stake! My administration would throw me under the bus faster than the speed of light then cheer for the bus to run me over again. Sad - very sad. I am a conservative professor - we do exist! Registered republican even and I am not 90! I will soon be 60. Love these discussions.

[@jp5419]

Happy to know professors like you do exist. I think the tide is turning. CV woke the eyes of many parents and we are engaged and actively parenting our children and instilling critical thinking skills and patriotism. My 8th grader and his close buddies laugh at the idiocy of their woke teachers, actively throwing facts in their faces and come home laughing at how their teacher forbade a subject or how hilarious it was to see their head explode. This generation will be the smartest, most resilient in the history of America. Believe it! What's more... we live in NYC 😂

[@GabrielBourke]

And a Trump supporter

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

Thanks for sharing. I’m curious, how far do you think the ‘Street Epistemology’ approach would get you, where, rather than getting into the content of discussion with others, you get into their openness to change their mind via reason and evidence? I guess I’m asking about the value of such an approach with other staff or even your students. I just wonder if it would open any cracks or whether it’s all doomed to the same bus-execution you mentioned

[@mysticjedi6730]

I have a cousin who is on the autism spectrum. He makes very poor life decisions, investment decisions, spending, etc. When he would say his single stock tanked to half of value , etc I would suggest a better idea.. he would get very upset when you disagree.. over time I kept telling him when he says something he is going to hear what I think about it.. Maybe start the semester with a tall about the free exchange of ideas and progress.. I'm reminded of the movie 2014 the gambler.. the importance of having F U money.. if you had more $$$ maybe you would feel more open to say what you think because you not desperate for cash flow.. .

[@ProfessorMcGuigan]

I will say there are certain subjects I do not touch, but the students are certainly aware that I am not liberal - so are my colleagues. There is a single narrative on campus and it is taken as a religious position - you cannot talk with zealots! @@mysticjedi6730

[@RobertWGreaves]

As a professor (now retired) who is critical of both the left and right, my observation of the struggle between the left and right tells me education is being replaced with dogmatics.

[@Jorbz150]

Education has always operated as a form of propaganda. It's almost inevitable, and takes considerable self-control for a teacher not to simply articulate their perspective. It also requires them to see the value in giving their students the ability to learn for themselves. Many professors believe that they already have all meaningful knowledge, so they just want to convince the students of their beliefs rather than teach them how to acquire new ideas.

[@999reader]

I am also a college professor and do not operate on the basis of propaganda. I propose controversial ideas and always beg my students to challenge me. Since I’m a lot older than they are, they seem to be too intimidated to challenge me or protest. There’s only so far that I can go to make them feel comfortable and still keep my self respect.

[@RobertWGreaves]

@@999reader excellent. I would sometimes get the class to discuss between themselves first as I maintained respect. We might close it out with me expressing a few observations about the arguments coming from both sides. My students really enjoyed it and they got along well with each other. Fortunately, the college didn’t mind my doing this. I would start classes with 5 to 10 minutes devoted to some controversy or interesting social topic. I taught sound engineering in a music department.

[@b.alexanderjohnstone9774]

Thank God you're there, mate, doing your bit to pass on some semblance of what was given us to the next generation!

[@centerfield6339]

As I always say, dogmatics are only for Asterix books.

[@richardfeit8296]

Great conversation. Fix the audio.

[@The_Scouts_Code]

Audio was atrocious.

[@liberality]

​@@The_Scouts_Code First world problem. You're not paying for a product here.

[@The_Scouts_Code]

lol oki@@liberality

[@tuckerbugeater]

These guys are going to save the world yet they can't buy cheap microphone

[@liberality]

@@tuckerbugeater Look at the microphones, there is nothing wrong with them. Can't believe the number of complaints about audio from pampered babies.

[@vkevpe]

Thank goodness for the likes of Pinker and Haidt. Imagine if they weren’t here? I would hate to imagine that.

[@clarebear764]

? That's not Haidt

[@jonahtwhale1779]

The liberal and soft left college staff are the ones who gave the extreme left ideologies a welcoming home to spread their messages of intolerance. They are in part culpable for the situation we are in.

[@jonahansen]

@@clarebear764 Yeah, so? Haidt is definitely associated...

[@James-ll3jb]

Given Pinker's monstrous illogicality in his "How The Mind Works" I just can't take the bonehead seriously....

[@RandoBurner]

Pinker is an architech of this academic world. What are you talking about?

[@plagship]

This is an encouraging conversation I really hope we are turning a corner in our universities. A renaissance in Liberalism, Logic and Rhetoric would make me very happy.

[@liberalmatt]

careful! The reactionary right in the US will only conflate your call for liberalism (which I subscribe) with Leftism, socialism etc. I fully agree the trivium needs to be taught, if anything to help people understand the art of persuasion.

[@plagship]

@@liberalmatt Could be, I certainly assumed I would get a response or two like that but, I find that the safest bet is to assume that every radical and illogical comment or post on the internet is fake for one nefarious end or another. Almost every person I run into in real life doesn't match the caricature of conservates that the talking heads tell me to fear. Pinker's quip about the view from the north pole vis-a-vis the "left" pole, describes the truth of the matter rather nicely.

[@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

Everyone forgets that after the Enlightenment there was a backlash of Romanticism for 50 years. For 50 years after the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution artists and social forces across Europe delved into a culture of intense emotions, "authentic feelings", traditionalism, a longing for an idealized past, and radical politics.

[@plagship]

​@@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat interesting I am not sure I forgot so much as I never knew. Could you recommend a book, video or podcast that could introduce me to the topic?

[@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

@@plagship I don't know much about it myself, just that it happened. it's just called "Romanticism" or the "Romantic Era" if you want to look it up. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is probably the most famous Romantic literature. It's all about an evil scientist desecrating the laws of nature, and the monster is trapped in this hell by science that he can't escape.

[@meisherenow]

Pinker is one of the greatest standard-bearers for core liberal principles, and we're lucky to have him. I can't help noticing, though, that he (like me) is getting on in years. We need young professors of his stature to step up.

[@jp5419]

Fear not. CV open the eyes of millions of clueless parents and we are engaged now and actively raising critical thinkers, resilient and could give a damn about wokeness or anything like it.

[@James-ll3jb]

Given Pinker's monstrous illogicality in his "How The Mind Works" I just can't take the bonehead seriously....

[@brahmdorst5154]

Distinguished young professors do stand up. Look up Roland Fryer.

[@James-ll3jb]

@@brahmdorst5154 who is he?

[@karagi101]

@@James-ll3jbIf you find him illogical then you must be extremely mentally challenged.

[@ili626]

I was bullied in grad school at an otherwise prestigious university. Many professors and administrators were disappointing as human beings. The university culture avoids responsibility - no one wants to “step on anyone’s toes” even if it means accountability for ruining someone’s life

[@ivanpenkov2612]

A true professor! As an academic, I deeply appreciate Professor Pinker's words.

[@RobertWGreaves]

I very much appreciated the final sentence. “Great minds do not always think alike. “

[@glennewell2436]

Audio was a big problem for me. Tried using the subtitles which made comprehension even worse. I'm guessing redoing the interview would be impossible, so, what about supplying a written version?

[@Tweston3ny]

Terrible. Thanks for

[@roothogordie1451]

In the expanded description above, click on "Show Transcript"

[@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

I think it might be better in earbuds if you're using speakers. There was only a handful of parts I couldn't make out.

[@guitarmusic524]

Sounds like Steven has a head cold.

[@joekennedy2599]

Swap sound is not helpful

[@gardengirl6636]

Wonderful conversation (sound is not so wonderful ☹️).

[@perspektif101]

I strongly suggest that your next topic should be "What's wrong with our audio". It's borderline incomprehensible.

[@le6870]

The audio-related problems were distracting and, frankly, it would have been nice to hear much more from Pinker and less from Tomasi, given Pinker was the guest and has been at Harvard for so long. I imagine he could have provided many more insights about the problems plaguing the university.

[@yaweno9555]

At least some folks are trying to reverse a repeat of what occurred in German universities in the early 1930s. We know how that story turned out. I wish them luck.

[@ColtraneTaylor]

Which side is Pinker on?

[@Michael-el]

This is a great conversation but I’m really struggling to make out what they’re saying. Something seems broken with the audio quality.

[@h.h.h.9307]

how can it be great when you dont understand it

[@TeaParty1776]

As a philosophy student in the 1970s, I aggressively advocated Ayn Rands ideas. My professors vigorously opposed and ridiculed me. But they did not cancel me. They permitted me to challenge their ideas in their offices. I dont think that todays schools would be so respectful of opposing ideas.

[@edwardbmurphy6378]

audio glitches need to be cleaned up when pinker is in the room 🙂

[@NoPickles.4Me]

Sound is very muffled like you both are to close to the mics, tough to track. I'm very interested in what is being said but have had to rewind many times 5 min in. Could be listener error....IDK.

[@jimsteele9559]

No, there is a sound problem.

[@shadysaeed644]

I have a feeling that there was a technical issue in the microphones !

[@MrHmjg]

any course that ends in "study" should not be in university.

[@6Diego1Diego9]

lol did you go to college? Sounds very ignorant.

[@alwaysask]

I was a teacher for a decade and was able to achieve a doctorate level in a third-world country. It's just the same here: If you are honestly searching for truth and trying to bring your students a plurality of views, you'll be pushed out of academia. As was I.

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

52:50 I think John nailed it here about the goal we should aim for, related to Pinker’s ideas about common knowledge

[@felixmidas3245]

Terrible sound! You've got good microphones. What went wrong?

[@russfinley4128]

Shame I can't understand anything. Can you post a transcript?

[@supergrousereeling]

Very much enjoyed what I can hear of this discussion. The poor sound has been noted already but the transcript is no better. Is there a plan to reissue this with a corrected transcript?

[@egverlander]

Did you not test the audio before starting the interview?????

[@jjuniper274]

Thank you Dr. Pinker.

[@theinngu5560]

What amazes me is that so many presumably intelligent people just take the rotten ideas being preached at the universities without any pushback. Insanity as well as fear ….

[@oldernu1250]

Taught in Boston in 1970's. A teacher just stopped coming to class. It later turned out that she was gang raped in the stairway near my classroom. She didn't call for help, submitted, and would not identify the gang members because she didn't want to get them into trouble. Half the kids were high, too buzzed to learn. Urban education is lost. Would send kids to charter schools or homeschool today. Cities are rotting.

[@greggunter5975]

Fascinating conversation. Thank you.

[@aaronfrank9649]

This is great! Hopefully the momentum increases.

[@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

I think this is going to be a very slow and "long crawl through the institutions." I think maybe in 10 years mainstream America will be starting to see FIRE and the Heterodox Academy like they used to see the ACLU. That's when the conversation will really start.

[@SuchaDoofus]

Your audio is poor

[@guusvandermeulen7210]

Perhaps there is an issue with the audio of the recording. You could have a sound technician examine how to enhance the sound quality (for future recordings). I had to play the recording at 0.75 speed. I can listen to almost all recordings (99.5-99.99%) on KZbin at normal speed. I am from the Netherlands.

[@helblue]

Great content! Just a pity, that the sound is quite bad.

[@juliaeberle4095]

I wish you pay attention to the sound system. I could barely understand what he is saying.

[@benfaubion]

Well Pinker called it out - the instructors "kissing the students asses". I was wondering if Pinker could actually offer a critique of Harvard, and here we have a great conversation about it. I thought Harvard didn't allow these things? Amazing. And this point about Marcuse's Marxian viewpoints and shutting down free speech, I'm glad this came up... The ideology of Marcuse and friends can co-exist there at college, but it has to be within the marketplace of ideas to discuss. When it's taken as gospel from teachers and college administration, it's bound to go wrong.. I'd argue along with others, things like that are a major source of enabling students to regurgitate this anti-free-speech and anti-diversity-in-thought poison. Those ideas MUST be challenged if they are taught as the go-to source for how the world should work. That's the difference between education and indoctrination. I/we/you.. a lot of people, are aghast at how the education system has been usurped by Marxian activists.

[@James-ll3jb]

Given Pinker's monstrous illogicality in his "How The Mind Works" I just can't take the bonehead seriously....

[@NousNoesis225]

@@James-ll3jb You’re clearly the bonehead. That was a brilliant book, and a Pulitzer Finalist for good reason.

[@6Diego1Diego9]

What's wrong with education being socialist? Do you even know the meaning? You watch too much right wing news.

[@benfaubion]

@@6Diego1Diego9 Socialism wasn't brought up in the thread, unless you are referring to Marxian points he was discussing. Perhaps you are referring to something else that Pinker said.

[@fredwelf8650]

Pinker said the administrators were kissing student ass. It was ingenuous of Pinker to pick out one book by Marcuse which was also co-authored by two other professors.

[@gordonpepper1400]

The underlining issue that never gets addressed in these types of discussions and critiques (and I am continually amazed that it doesn't) is the simple fact that society over the past 10, 20, 30 years has drastically changed its mediums of communication, transitioning from a literary (linear, rational) framework to a electronic (non-linear, irrational) framework, These systemic changes have profound all-encompassing effects on ALL facets of society, from education, to law, to democracy, to identity, etc. There are reasons why universities are now being questioned/challenged, and that is bc the linear, literate basis of society (which the were formed on) has moved on! Please, read or re-read Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, or even people like Nicholas Carr or Maryanne Wolf - the medium is the message and is the reason we are now experiencing all of these massive institutional and behavioural changes.

[@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

Underrated point. We sometimes forget history is a slave to technology, not the other way around.

[@spiritualpolitics8205]

True to a point, definitely. Paglia has argued thusly. But obviously ideological capture and dogmatic lockstep has diminished the relevance of our most premiere universities, except insofar as the name still has great (but somewhat now attenuated) job cachet.

[@gordonpepper1400]

With all due respect, you still don't get it. Understanding media ecology is what has created this 'ideological capture'. It's very difficult to do, but you are still analyzing the content (ideology) of university decisions and positions - to do so is missing the point. Universities need to offer (world-wide) courses and programs on how technology (in particular communication technology) is creating wide-sweeping effects on all facets of society and culture -outside of politics, etc. Our institutions and legal framework are doomed unless we address this ASAP. We are already seeing numerous examples of the court system beginning to fracture (even the supreme court) due to electronic communication, like social media, and the demise of literacy and in particular print culture.

[@spiritualpolitics8205]

​@@gordonpepper1400 With respect, I think it's a composite vector problem. I share your alarm at the collapse of general literacy. I am a huge Shakespeare fan, and it is now commonly said that Gen Z could not comprehend his plays.... But clearly the composite vector of ideological drift which Haidt has documented owes to a relentless Marxist march leftward. It is clear the left realized after the Cold War that it could replace class with "identity" to increase the power of the state. It's fine to aver the general illiteracy and electronic distractedness has amplified these effects too; I would agree. And driven a great deal of the dissolution of our common culture, yes. And rendered people more pliable, yes. But there's also clearly a very aggressive Marxist agenda operating in the void. The anti-capitalist and anti-Western hate now imbricated is nonpareil in the history of any self-preserving civilization. These two trends fused together are destroying rationality in the public square.

[@Scarletpimpanel73]

Great point. Really is a key observation.

[@jamesstrom6991]

Steven Pinker. Living proof that truth and courage go hand in hand. Sadly, not enough professors are like him, i.e., “too big to shout down and fire”

[@user-wr4yl7tx3w]

Audio could be better

[@GlobeHackers]

Thank you, gentlemen. I enjoyed this conversation on an important topic.

[@jameswebb4593]

This view of the education systems of the UK and USA has been aired for years. In the UK my roots , the Socialists , the party of envy , Thought that hundreds of years of teaching procedure harmed a portion of society. Their answer bring everyone down to the lowest denominator . Being an octogenarian have seen and experience numerous changes , few for the better. When I say with utter truth , that when leaving my small infant school aged seven , none of the pupils were unable to read and write . That was entirely due to the ability and dedication of the female teachers . There was streaming with the class , six or more groups would read from a book , the smart would soon progress to harder reads , whilst the slower would receive extra tuition from the teacher. The system worked , its reward closure to put them all under one roof.

[@999reader]

Tomasi is an excellent interviewer. Pinker is an excellent advocate for free-speech. Unfortunately, the combination of the sibilant sound, perhaps due to the speakers being too close to the microphones, and the rather clipped speech, especially of Pinker, made this difficult for me to understand. I would like to have played this For my university students, but most of them are not native English speakers, and I think they would miss too much of it.

[@StevePetrica]

It would help to have a more vigorous grasp of the distinction between "argument" and "quarrel." A quarrel is simply a clash of opinions using words. An argument though, means building a case by stating one's premises, adducing evidence, and drawing a conclusion, and it can be challenged at any of those levels. That's a desirable state of affairs, even for one committed to a given conviction.

[@SuperRickflick]

Poor sound quality. I hope it can be redone. I'm unlikely to forward this because of it.

[@jclaer]

Amen

[@__________5737]

These philosophies put feelings above outcome. Is there a single injustice these behaviors reverse? No.

[@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat]

This is one part that has been driving me crazy. Because I do still consider myself a "liberal" even if leftists have pushed me right of center. They DONT EVEN DO ANYTHING. All they do is argue about words, playing 1984 Newspeak language games. Meanwhile racism and division and everything seems to get worse and worse and worse. I visited Portland in 2021 and was absolutely stunned by the level of misery and homelessness I saw on the streets. But all the Portlanders seemed to care about was that you have to call them "our unhoused neighbors." That was extremely important.

[@jjuniper274]

In the 90s, this was not so at my local state university. When I final got to a graduate program in the early 2000s, the climate clearly changed. What was that?

[@brek5]

Yeah, same here. The culture where I was, selective research uni, was very much go watch anyone, be respectful, possibly take notes, and if we disagreed with it, we'd have a coffee afterwards and discuss why their ideas stunk (any topic... was more academic ideas and not culture war stuff), and word would get around, like, "Oh, yeah, I saw that guy give a speech on X topic, and he's not the thinker he's made out to be because of X, Y, and Z points." We didn't sit in the back and yell and whine.

[@afterthesmash]

After the recent congressional controversy, I started joking "occupy Harvard Yard" and "defund MIT", not all that seriously (yet), but I sure got a lot of belly laughs.

[@OnerousEthic]

This stark set makes “between two ferns” look fancy…

[@CostaKazistov]

Audio issues - hard to understand due to EQ settings being set incorrectly

[@GabrielBourke]

What's with the terrible sound? Pinker goes in and out of audibility

[@Highwayman589]

Pinker has long been a personal hero of mine. He has previously expressed that he cultivates his controversy docket carefully, so I have wondered how much he knows but doesn't tell. Reading between the lines of this interview, I can tell that he has not grasped the full gender dynamic at play. As Heather McDonald has observed, universities are now feminized spaces and it is, in her words, "the death of reason." Pinker has probably been blinded to women's true nature because he has successfully reasoned with them in the past. He incorrectly assumed that, like men, women have been swayed by his enormous reasoning capabilities. In fact, he was able to successfully "reason" with women because they clocked him as an alpha, so they tried to get into his frame and agree with him. It is not that women are incapable of reason. Rather, they see it as a threat to their power--which derives from the enormous weight that others put on their emotions. An appeal to reason provides a basis for men to withstand women's emotional insistence, whereas, in the absence of reason, men will cave. So I predict a painful reorientation of his thinking as he finds reasoning with women (and therefore with the university community) to be less and less effective.

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

I think you're implying that men to lead in order for reason to be effective. How do see this coming back?

[@gonx9906]

What did i just read??

[@henritube3554]

What's wrong with our sound recording?

[@magnusakesson6634]

having really hard time hearing what is said. Did you over compress the sound for some reason? Are really intresset in the topic, but sorry, can't hear. And the automatic translator producing sub titles can't hear either.

[@natalialutsevich843]

Fantastic conversation! And so timely. Thank You! And please do something about that sound quality, it was so poor during the interview.

[@yurypal]

Shame that sound quality is so poor. I couldn’t bear it for more than 5 minutes. Maybe still possible to fix?

[@tristandecunha434]

What is wrong with the audio? Did nobody check this? And the popping and swooshing is very distracting. Had to quit after 7 minutes.

[@jnauttube]

This is a great podcast and topic, but please, fix the audio. This was like a bad speakerphone conversation being broadcast over a transistor radio in the 70s.

[@uwejacobs4021]

I remember reading Marcuse and internalizing some of his analysis. I was a Frankfurt School guy when I was young. When I tried reading the French fools who got us into this mess, however, I recognized fairly quickly that they “weren’t even wrong” because it was gibberish. Chomsky nailed it right away and pointed out that Foucault was amoral. Then the gibberish became gospel in certain departments but, as cynical as I was, I didn’t foresee it taking over the entire operation. Now we have the great majority of people in the humanities with their heads up their rear ends and I have seen my children come home with third rate woke propaganda for their assigned reading. I don’t know how Pinker and others manage to remain so level-headed and polite. Hats off!

[@abcrane]

I read Marcuse. I believe it is repressive de-sublimation that lies at the roots of cancel culture. I believe these student-authority conflicts are a result of repressive de-sublimation. Marcuse was protesting war, not whining about things professors said or did. So, I believe that this cancel culture is a "containing" of student angst into "manageable ways." It is easier to contain a few verbal outbursts on a college campus than say a major boycott or a rent strike or a union strike or a street protest against war, etc. I understand that Marcuse had some later writings that did indeed fall towards this cancel stuff. BUT that concept of RDS, I confidently say, lies at the roots here of cancel culture. Or rather, why the angst is channeled in the way that is is-safe enough for the state to carry on as it does, yet contentious enough to "appear" like social change is happening. I believe we should be careful not to cancel a thinker based on SOME of his work, when other aspects are very valuable. Yes, I resonate with Nietzsche, but I differ on a few points. Yet, I still embrace Friedrich, Human, all tooooooo human!

[@TeaParty1776]

Peter Schwartz, of the Ayn Rand Institute, discusses the systematic irrationalism of Social Justice in various formats.

[@alexkreyn315]

Can you change the audio track WITHOUT the compression and noise gate! It would be better still

[@yourewelcomeamericathepodc1601]

Please hire a sound engineer (or a new sound engineer). This was tough to listen to, unfortunately.

[@DavidofFairview]

The subject matter and guest is very interesting ... BUT .. I struggle to clearly understand the dialog because the sound quality seems to be very low in bass. 15 minutes in .. I have to bail .. too bad :(

[@eugenetzigane]

Generally in agreement. If I can add my two cents, I have three suggestions for universities (if anyone is listening) 1. do away with student evaluations and surveys of professors. The administration should be responsible for oversight and have channels open for students to report abuse or harassment. Otherwise, whether students like or hate a professor is irrelevant. The results should be the only true measure of a professor. 2. Reductions in faculty bureaucracy. They need to focus on teaching and research, not on paperwork. 3. Massive overhaul of the peer-reviewing process. Quality over quantity. Also, the obsession with novelty in the most inane ways produces papers and dissertations of negligible importance and wasting valuable time and resources. 4. Shift responsibility for applying for more funding to the administration or have dedicated development officers who are responsible for understanding and primoting the work of particular professors or their projects.

[@nuqwestr]

"Argument to Authority", in particular circumstances, is sound to use as a practical although fallible way of obtaining information that can be considered generally likely to be correct if the authority is a real and pertinent intellectual authority and there is universal consensus about these statements in this field. I've often used Pinker himself in "Argument to Authority". Was I wrong?

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

For that fallacy, I’ve heard the name ‘argument from unqualified authority’. That does distinguish between “it’s true simply because I say it’s true” and “it’s more likely to be true because an expert in the field said it”, the latter of which isn’t a fallacy

[@l.w.paradis2108]

It also depends on what you are invoking the authority for. If it involves empirical data that not everyone is in a position to view, or that involves special expertise to understand, and you trust the expert who is in a position to collect or interpret that data, that is sensible, absent evidence to the contrary. The same is true of arcane deductive arguments. If you are invoking authority to support something that anyone can verify for themselves, and using that authority's supposed prestige to browbeat others into accepting your view, that's a misuse of expertise -- actually, it's not the use of expertise at all. It's a flat-out fallacy.

[@DieFlabbergast]

No: it's called common sense, and remains valid despite being out of fashion.

[@l.w.paradis2108]

@@DieFlabbergast HA

[@daheikkinen]

Was the audio recorded under water?

[@nicholastregenza8426]

What a shame - so many words are unintelligible in a very valuable piece

[@simpaticode]

13:30 It should give everyone chills to hear Steven Pinker of all people say "Things have gotten worse."

[@goldsburypeter116]

I was at Harvard around 1970. My area is ancient philosophy and I changed my major from philosophy to Greek & Latin Classics because I was able to obtain a better scholarship. I left Harvard and went to University College London (UCL) to follow a visiting professor and it was at UCL where I obtained my PhD. I learned Japanese and became a professor at Hiroshima University. I retired recently.

[@nickmiller76]

Was there a point you wanted to make?

[@goldsburypeter116]

When I was at Harvard, I think it was regarded as a 'good' university, especially the departments of philosophy and the classics. Whatever 'politics' there were, they did not intrude into my academic life. I would not dream of recommending Harvard to any of my own students.

[@lesly9101]

Can't there anything being done - such as remastering the sound track - to make this video listenable? The way as it is now is a plain torture for the audience!

[@bobmassie7801]

This is a wonderful conversation, but the audio is hideous

[@issadad]

Please repost with corrected audio.

[@andrewlm5677]

College is part education and part ‘life experience’. For the many who fail out in their first year it is a very expensive ‘life experience’. There is a lot of money wasted as we send people to College and hope that something productive is achieved

[@psyskeptic9979]

If you have complex filters or boosters on the audio, consider removing some of them and testing the audio carefully before the next podcast.

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

9:48 Marcuse counterarguments

[@robertnicholson1409]

Everything !

[@jamespercy8506]

Wokism and the Tower of Babel dynamic, when language gets weaponized to the point that actual communication is eclipsed and the prospect of a shared open future recedes catastrophically

[@rodriffel9514]

So things wrong with your sound..

[@bruceparker805]

bad sound!

[@aleksandarzivkovic1792]

Poor sound - can it be retro-fixed?

[@T-41]

US higher education “industry” , like the US healthcare industry, has costs that are out of control expensive. The benefits don’t outweigh the cost for a very large number of students. Way too often, it’s a racket.

[@johnricercato740]

A racket certainly. Once universities became businesses with students as customers all was lost.

[@jceepf]

I am also a prof and a semi-passive member of the heterodox academy. But I was lucky. I was in Berkeley from 1985 to 1995. I saw the rot first hand because my friend was a gold medalist undergraduate in anthropology. I have a PH.D. in physics. Despite her high intelligence, she and her fellow students were the worst arrogant bunch I ever met. They could not see any virtue that physicists can predict and measure the gyro-magnetic ratio of the electron to 13 digits. This was not knowledge for them. For my friend, it was no knowledge at all. Their brains were soaked in post-modernism. To be fair, I first notice this while attending an Ancient French reading at the University of Maryland in 1982 where I was exposed to what appeared as pure delusion to a physicist. The prof, a Yale graduate, exposed me to "deconstructionism". If we had that in physics, we would still be pre-Galileo. Insane. In 1995, I had two toddlers, I said : F..k this s..t. I moved to Japan and became a Japanese citizen. The best decision of my life by a long shot. I did it for my children's sake. I am 64 years old. I did two things unthinkable for the average ignorant immigrant: I renounced Canadian citizenship and also my Green Card. Good bye Canada, good bye USA. I see more hope for the USA because, unlike French and English Canadians, you have balls having fought a revolution and a horrible civil war. Canadians were always given rights by others.... A weak bunch of people ready to accept martial law and other abominations.

[@nightwingtrp7399]

You need to get Peter Boghossian on. One of the foremost minds in this area.

[@pedroexposito3836]

I don't see where there is "cancel" in the physical science... everything is open to discussion in physics, engineering, chemistry, etc. Cancel culture occurs when groups are being classified, excluded, privileged, etc. Is that bad ? human classification is the first step into exclusion, ethnic cleansing, and ultimately, genocide. is that good ? should we go there ?

[@user-tb4zr5nr3r]

Normally I dont give a fig for what Polyanna Pinkerton says, but he is worth a listen here!

[@jimmymcgee4101]

Dealing with a hostile establishment is causing change for new universities to commence and free thinking rules

[@jf7243]

Mobs rising up against conservative principles reminds me of the lead up to WW2 in Germany. Never forget the book burnings occurred at the great universities of Germany.

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

experience divine central authority unity through Christ divine nature spirit and words

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

experience divine central authority unity with substantive human rights choice

[@TeaParty1776]

I have denied knowledge therefore, in order to make room for faith. -Kant, top modern intellectual

[@terrywhelan1]

I love how geniusdoenxs

[@jeffsmith1798]

What’s missing is not the evolution of ideas (kind of the survival of the fittest ideas). What’s missing is the university’s placing of the discovery of truth above ideology. Two very different things.

[@AA-yc8yr]

'Survival of the fittest' emphasises fitness. If you spared a thought on it, its importance may finally dawn on you.

[@jeffsmith1798]

@@AA-yc8yr you miss my point. Survival of the fittest suffers from two major weaknesses. Survival of the fittest doesn’t explain anything because it’s tautological. Those that are most fit survive. Those that survive will survive. That’s clearly different than saying the aim of the academy is discovery of the truth. And what does it mean for an idea to survive? Power. The idea possesses more persuasion. That’s ideology, not truth.

[@AA-yc8yr]

@@jeffsmith1798 'Survival of the fittest' is NOT tautological, because while being 'fittest' bestows greater probability of survival, it doesn't guarantee it. 'cause, erm, genetics - hence the persistence of recessive genes - and fluctuations in the environmental conditions. Not to mention that most of the biological change is random, i.e., undirected, through something called genetic drift. Fitness comes into play in natural selection, which is directive, and evolution is a combo of both of these processes. So, evolution of ideas is precisely what is needed to pursue the truth academically in both sporadic (random) and more directed (following from past work) ways. Just because certain ideas have increased their pervasiveness at a point in time doesn't mean they can't and won't be modified, changed, and/or refuted in due course. That's how the pursuit of truth happens and there're plenty of examples of ideas (ideologies) in the history of humanity and science of ideas coming in and out of prominence. Only those that are empirically sustainable persist. It is therefore absurd to claim that universities have stopped pursuing truth because of some ephemeral prevalence of ideologies and methodologies you (and I) find irrational. So, no, I've not missed your 'point', much that it is.

[@horacioaugustofilho6487]

What's wrong is this: teachers and students in the University spend their time discussing theories to change Society instead of acquiring the practical knowledge necessary to do so.

[@NousNoesis225]

There needs to be a time and place for conversations about social theories, though. That would seem to be a central purpose of the university.

[@horacioaugustofilho6487]

I'm not denying the value of studying theories. And yet, if you know nothing about the real world, you'll have no way to ascertain their validity. That's actually the problem with Communism and other left wing proposals. They look good in theory, and render really bad results in practice.

[@NousNoesis225]

@@horacioaugustofilho6487 It's also the problem with libertarianism and other right-wing proposals. Your previous statement demonized talking about social theory in school. A good mix of theory and practice is the answer. One can't work without the other.

[@horacioaugustofilho6487]

OK, for a moment I thought you were serious.

[@NousNoesis225]

@@horacioaugustofilho6487 I'm 100% serious. Communism, right-wing fascism, and libertarianism are all equally stupid and destructive ideas that sometimes look great in theory. Neither the left nor right has a monopoly on stupid ideas.

[@user-sp1md5xu8j]

What's happening in universities is reminiscent of what occurred in Nazi Germany in 1933. Antisemitism is seeping into and saturating educational institutions, masquerading as freedom of speech. All else are mere excuses, baseless rhetoric, and manipulative falsehoods . Islam is not willing to accept the existence of the State of Israel, and nothing will help. They are using the same group of people who are infiltrating the same Nazi ideology and implementing the final solution. That's why the founder of their movement met with Hitler in 1941, and that's why they continuously come up with false inventions to delegitimize a Jewish state.

[@camilofuentespena7348]

Great interview! but please, that audio does not help.

[@richardshagrin8565]

How much the schools charge,

[@nancya7289]

audio problems.

[@kingclover1395]

The problem is that the students believe so many things that aren't true, and by defending these beliefs they think that they are doing the good and moral thing. Of course they only believe these things because they've been indoctrinated to believe them by the universities. So it's kind of like an unsolvable problem.

[@Jorbz150]

The solution is to explain to people, as often as needed, that having some official accreditation in a field, or being a professor in a field, doesn't make someone infallible. If people didn't operate under the assumption that a professor must be a perfect genius in his area of expertise then his power would be considerably reduced. Fortunately I had some nutty professors early on, and quickly realized there were plenty of morons that know how to publish meaningless papers and sound intelligent to their gullible peers.

[@RM-dc6zd]

I graduated 30 years ago. The recent developments in wokeism, DEI, diversity statements, etc. are dragging up a lot of old memories which I had suppressed a long time ago. Bad experiences with professors and GSIs that were pushing their political agendas. Open and blatant racism not by white people (or even Black and Hispanic people), but by Asian people who had been taught grievance politics (these were fellow students). They were smart kids who had been led astray, given a chip on their shoulder or perhaps enlarging one they already had. An excuse for their issues, someone to blame. The absurdity of it all. There is no doubt in my mind that the universities need to be disrupted and reorganized. So many useless degrees, so much money, so many lives wasted or at least unnecessarily miserable. A detached bubble indeed.

[@oleolesen2672]

The audio is terrible.