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🏛️⚖️💥 «Two incompatible sacred values in American universities» Jon Haidt, Hayek Lecture Series

🤖 AI Summary

The video, a 2016 lecture by Jonathan Haidt, discusses the turmoil 💥 at American universities, which he attributes to a clash between two ✌️ opposing values:

• Truth-seeking: This is the traditional purpose of a university, focusing on intellectual diversity, open debate, and challenge to discover truth 💡. It has been undermined by a lack of political diversity among professors 👨‍🏫.
• Social justice: Haidt argues that since the 1990s, social justice has become a central mission, overshadowing the pursuit of truth. This is connected to a “victimhood culture” on campuses, where certain groups are considered sacred, and perceived offenses against them are treated as “blasphemy” 😠, which shuts down open inquiry and free speech 🤫.

The core argument is that these two values are fundamentally incompatible within a single institution 🏫, and he proposes a “schism” where universities must choose one mission over the other. Haidt believes that a commitment to truth is the only way to genuinely achieve justice.

Haidt also touches on several related psychological concepts to support his points, including:

• Telos: The idea of an object or institution’s ultimate purpose or goal.
• Motivated reasoning: The human tendency to seek out and favor information that supports what we already want to believe.
• Antifragility: The concept that things, including people, can get stronger 💪 when exposed to challenges.

🤔 Evaluation

Haidt’s perspective presents a compelling critique of modern higher education, but it is not without its critics. His view that the pursuit of social justice directly conflicts with truth-seeking is a central point of contention. Other perspectives might argue that social justice is not an opposing value but an integral part of truth-seeking, as a full understanding of the world requires acknowledging systemic inequalities and historical injustices.

For a better understanding, one could explore the arguments of scholars who see social justice as a necessary corrective to historical biases within academia. It would also be valuable to examine the data on political diversity in universities more closely and to consider how different disciplines might be affected by these trends. Lastly, exploring the history of university missions and how they have evolved over time could provide a richer context for Haidt’s claims.

📚 Book Recommendations

• The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. This book expands on the ideas of the lecture, exploring how a culture of safetyism on college campuses is making students and society more fragile.
• So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. This book explores the rise of public shaming on the internet and its psychological and social effects, which is creatively related to the “victimhood culture” described in the video.
• ✊🏿 How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. This book offers a contrasting perspective on how to achieve social justice, arguing that the opposite of racist is not “not racist” but “antiracist,” which requires active work to dismantle racist systems.
• Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel. This book provides an overview of different moral and political philosophies, which can help readers evaluate Haidt’s arguments about the goals and values of a university.