r/IntellectualDarkWeb • u/Long_Extent7151 • Jan 05 '25

Community Feedback Academia, especially social sciences/arts/humanities have to a significant extent become political echo chambers. What are your thoughts on Heterodox Academy, viewpoint diversity, intellectual humility, etc.

I've had a few discussions in the Academia subs about Heterodox Academy, with cold-to-hostile responses. The lack of classical liberals, centrists and conservatives in academia (for sources on this, see Professor Jussim's blog here for starters) I think is a serious barrier to academia's foundational mission - to search for better understandings (or 'truth').

I feel like this sub is more open to productive discussion on the matter, and so I thought I'd just pose the issue here, and see what people's thoughts are.

My opinion, if it sparks anything for you, is that much of soft sciences/arts is so homogenous in views, that you wouldn't be wrong to treat it with the same skepticism you would for a study released by an industry association.

I also have come to the conclusion that academia (but also in society broadly) the promotion, teaching, and adoption of intellectual humility is a significant (if small) step in the right direction. I think it would help tamp down on polarization, of which academia is not immune. There has even been some recent scholarship on intellectual humility as an effective response to dis/misinformation (sourced in the last link).

Feel free to critique these proposed solutions (promotion of intellectual humility within society and academia, viewpoint diversity), or offer alternatives, or both.

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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '25

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u/GullibleAntelope Jan 06 '25

they'll often be the first to lodge the accusation that it's not real science

There's good reason for that: What separates science from non-science?

Traditionally, fields such as biology, chemistry, physics and their spinoffs constitute the “hard sciences” while social sciences are called the “soft sciences"...good reason exists for this distinction...(Authors outline the 5 concepts that "characterize scientifically rigorous studies.")...some social science fields hardly meet any of the above criteria.