The Independent Whig
Conventional Wisdom
Social Justice Warriors Physically Assault Trump Supporters. It Was Only a Matter of Time. Here’s Why.
Last night, Trump supporters were physically attacked by protesters. This sort of action seems to be baked into the cake of the one-foundation, WEIRD Platonic mindset, and virtually absent from the all-foundation holistic Aristotelian mindset. Recognizing why this is so is a necessary step toward avoiding similar events in the future, and toward reducing partisan rancor … Continue reading
Liberal Hegemony in Academia “No Platforms” Truths of Human Nature and Thereby Exacerbates Partisan Discord
Articles like The Big Uneasy, the interview of Timothy Garton Ash, and many others highlighted by Heterodox Academy as these were, or written by its members, remind me of the fable of the blind men and the elephant, in which each blind man touched a different part of the elephant and concluded he had encountered a … Continue reading
The Consciousness Bias
Consciousness itself seems to be a form of cognitive bias in which we prefer our own thoughts, of which we are consciously aware in the present moment, to sources of knowledge and understanding external to that realm. [This essay is adapted from my longer essay An Open Letter to Heterodox Academy] Consciousness seems like a not invented … Continue reading
Examining the Water, or Not
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What … Continue reading
America’s Founding Was A Conservative Movement
America’s founding rests on conservative morality, and conservative principles and processes which follow from that morality. The notion that it was liberals who created this country is factually false. For an example of a liberal revolution see France circa 1789. Morality Moralities and ideologies (different words for the same thing) differ in the degree to which … Continue reading
A Response To “Why are there so few non-liberals in social psychology? A closer look”
This month’s blog updates email from Heterodox Academy features an essay entitled Why are there so few non-liberals in social psychology? A closer look, by Bo Bennett. I believe the essay to be fatally flawed. The farther into it I read the more my blood boiled. Let me explain. The first step in writing an essay like … Continue reading
Are Moral Foundations Named Incorrectly, Leading to Misunderstanding?
I’m just thinking out loud here, but based on reactions to Moral Foundations from many liberals I can’t help but wonder sometimes if all of the foundations are properly named. I think Haidt’s choice of words for some of the foundations may be unfortunate because they’re potentially off-putting to liberals when they needn’t be. They’re loaded … Continue reading
This Explains – and Changes – Everything
Each year Edge.org asks a “big” question, gathers responses to it from some of today’s most important thinkers, and publishes the results in a book. In this post I propose one idea in response to three recent annual questions. The annual question for 2014 was What scientific idea is ready for retirement? The responses were published in … Continue reading
Liberalism is Innately Anti-Science
Innate: From Merriam-Webster: 1: existing in, belonging to, or determined by factors present in an individual from birth : NATIVE, INBORN 2: belonging to the essential nature of something : INHERENT 3: originating in or derived from the mind or the constitution of the intellect rather than from experience From Dictionary.com: 1. existing in one … Continue reading
Religion, Morality, and Ideology: Like Things That Should Be Judged Alike.
Introduction This post is the second half of a two part essay. In part one I argued that religions, moralities, and ideologies are different manifestations of a single underlying element of human nature: our tendency to form into groups of like-minded people and compete with other groups. In this post I continue that argument and make the additional claim that since … Continue reading
I Support Viewpoint Diversity
A politically diverse group of social scientists, natural scientists, humanists, and other scholars who want to improve our academic disciplines and universities. We share a concern about a growing problem: the loss or lack of “viewpoint diversity.” When nearly everyone in a field shares the same political orientation, certain ideas become orthodoxy, dissent is discouraged, and errors can go unchallenged.
Venn Diagram of Liberal and Conservative Traits and Moral Foundations and
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