A non-partisan collaborative of educators who believe open inquiry, diverse viewpoints, & constructive disagreement are critical to research & education.
Thank you to everyone that made
#HxA2024
an invigorating weekend!
We’re already excited about next year’s conference that will be hosted in our home of New York City June 23-25, 2025.
Save the date — we’ll see you there!
Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty have adopted a resolution that defends freedom of speech and expression — even speech some find “offensive or injurious.”
@CollegeFix
""Third Wave Antiracism exploits modern Americans’ fear of being thought racist, using this to promulgate an obsessive, self-involved, totalitarian and unnecessary kind of cultural reprogramming."
@JohnHMcWhorter
@JoinPersuasion
"many of my college students had been exposed mostly to writing assignments that focused on emotional self-expression, not rational argumentation. Partly as a result, most of them are poor writers and underdeveloped thinkers." -
@ElizabethGMat
@thehill
"Male students preferred protecting free speech over an inclusive and diverse society by a decisive 61 to 39. Female students took the opposite position, favoring an inclusive, diverse society over free speech by 64 to 35."
@nytimes
@Edsall
Happy to welcome
@newworldhominin
to Heterodox Academy as a Graduate Student Affiliate. Higher education needs more committed
#viewpointdiversity
advocates like Lindsay Shepherd.
Our story on her story:
"I published a paper... defending the study of race differences in intelligence. This topic arouses strong emotions. But... the job of philosophers is to confront issues dispassionately, guided only by reason and evidence..."
@spectator
@nathancofnas
"Social justice, grievance studies, victimhood culture and most of the other buzzwords that have come to dominate discussions about institutions of higher learning in recent years: none of this stuff is actually new."
@Musa_alGharbi
Listen to
@JonHaidt
read his instructive and powerful piece, "Why Universities Must Choose One: Truth or Social Justice" for our first episode of Heterodox Out Loud. Don't forget to subscribe!
"One of the grimmest tragedies of...this perversion of sociopolitics...is that it will bar more than a few black readers from understanding that I am calling for them to be treated with true dignity."
@JohnHMcWhorter
@JoinPersuasion
"Social Justice... is a kind of faith system. This raises serious questions about how we should deal with its attempts to institutionalize itself in various cultural enterprises — especially education."
@ConceptualJames
@mikenayna
@AreoMagazine
The University of Texas at Austin faces a lawsuit accusing the administration of stifling academic freedom, threatening professors and limiting free speech.
@CollegeFix
Institutional pressure and potential career damage will intimidate most people into acquiescence. But not
@AliceDreger
, which is why we are awarding her the first-ever HxA Open Mind Award for Courage.
THE SKEPTICS ARE WRONG: SPEECH CULTURE IS CHANGING ON CAMPUS. This is one of the most important pieces we will publish this year. Please consider sharing.
HxA is pleased to release our Fall 2020 Campus Expression Survey Report. Each year, HxA surveys students across the U.S. to gauge the expression climate on college campuses.
Click to read the full report
#ViewpointDiversity
is about so much more than just left v. right. The abscence of perspectives from rural, post-industrial and/or lower-SES Americans + loss of great ideas they could come up with given a chance, both distorts & undermines social research:
"Some of these doctors say that there is a 'purge' underway in the world of American medicine: question the current orthodoxy and you will be pushed out."
@kittypurrzog
@bariweiss
In the latest episode of Half Hour of Heterodoxy,
@Chrismartin76
interviews
@glukianoff
&
@JonHaidt
about thier new book, "The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure"
"Academics, people who identified as politically liberal, and non-parents significantly rejected the idea of evolved behavioral sex differences. This finding was true even when asked about hens and roosters."
Written in the HxA Blog by
@glenngeher
"The worst thing that happened to the climate change movement was when it became a left-wing issue."
@sapinker
continues, it'd be similarly harmful if the open inquiry movement came to be seen as primarily a right-wing issue
@Chrismartin76
@nickgillespie
"We don’t just need more diversity of thought; we also need thoughts to be less extreme and less entrenched. When you let your ideas become your identity, you’re making a choice to close your mind and stop learning."
@AdamMGrant
"The best response to a plurality of values..is not for responsible scholars to take up their own morally righteous causes, but to recommit to the values of the institution itself. First[ly]...a commitment to the pursuit of truth no matter where it leads"
Cambridge University has sacked Noah Carl, following outcry against his work, affiliations, and insinuations about the motives which underlie them. In Dec. 2018, the HxA executive committee released the following statement on the tactic of open letters:
"Meta-analyses reveal the precise type of diversity that enhances collective intelligence.
It’s not diversity in surface-level demographic characteristics... It’s deep-level diversity, where team members differ in their viewpoints and information..."
"Instead they learn to parrot what they know they’re supposed to say to get a good grade. Kids are really good at that, but it doesn’t translate to actually believing what they are saying or knowing why it’s supposed to be important"
@TheAtlIdeas
@conor64
“A new paper… examines whether the political views of academic philosophers are associated with willingness to discriminate against peers... Spoiler alert: they are.”
By
@ImHardcory
in Heterodox: The HxA Blog
May our crucial conversations be graced with humility and curiosity as we seek to bring light, not heat: How do you see it?
I hadn’t considered that angle before.
I am interested in hearing your take on this.
I might be wrong.
Thank you for sharing that.
I changed my mind.
"But an appeal to scientific authority is not a substitute for scientific debate. The history of science is littered with well accepted “facts” and theories that were later revealed to be dogmatic falsehoods."
@jacobinmag
“A critic—even a forceful one—does business in the proper currency of intellectual discourse: presenting evidence, providing reasons, making arguments; a bully questions people’s motives and calls them names…”
By Robert George in Heterodox: The HxA Blog
"Indeed, if you don’t want your traditions, beliefs, or views challenged, then don’t come to a university, at least not to study anything in the humanities or the social sciences." -
@RadioFreeTom
@TheAtlantic
"I value free speech, not so much because I’m right and you need to hear from me, but rather because I’m very often wrong and need to hear from you. Free speech rests upon a foundation of human fallibility."
@JoinPersuasion
@DavidAFrench
"I sought to create the conditions for rigorous thought; to help them gain the tools to hunt and furrow for their own conclusions. This is why I became a teacher and why I love teaching."
@peterboghossian
@bariweiss
1. "Frederick Douglass called the right to free speech the “dread of tyrants” not simply because dissenters will argue for more free speech, but because they’ll bring to bear reason and passion to strike at the heart of injustice." -
@DavidAFrench
“The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other.”
"We are not pro-right or pro-left, we’re pro-university. And if you’re pro-university, then you must have viewpoint diversity and open inquiry."
@JonHaidt
@Deseret
"A staggering 88% of 4yr colleges and universities restrict the free expression of their students, reversing a 15-year trend, according to an annual report on campus speech codes from
@TheFIREorg
"
@WashTimes
Recent essays have asserted that widespread concerns about free speech on American college campuses are essentially a moral panic with no basis in fact. In fact, we show that such skepticism is not justified by the survey data:
"Has American society ever been in less basic agreement on what so many important words actually mean? ...The gap between how the initiated express their ideological beliefs and how everyone else does seems larger than ever."
@JohnHMcWhorter
@TheAtlantic
The "great awokening"
@Musa_alGharbi
explained for
@compactmag_
and the HxA blog appears to be a global phenomenon based on new analysis of 98 million news and opinion articles from 124 media outlets across 36 countries by
@DavidRozado
@jordanbpeterson
Just as we don't want to unfairly lump together people under pejorative labels like "alt-right", we want to avoid disparaging everyone on the left as Marxists. The best estimates on actual Marxists in social sciences is about 18%... and mostly older (soon retiring) faculty.
Loving this quote by the renowned Stephen Hawking on the need to never assume you know everything.
#viewpointdiversity
means listening to others to arrive at a better solution.
"When people turn away from one source of meaning, such as religion, they don’t abandon the search for meaning altogether. They simply look for it in different forms."
@clayroutledge
@QuilletteM
Why renowned cognitive psychologist, linguist, and author
@sapinker
supports the viewpoint diversity movement in higher education.
Join the HxA Network
“As academia drifts toward progressive activism at the expense of truth, it will become increasingly ineffective, it will lose its reputation as a disinterested arbiter of truth, and it will lose its position of power.”
By
@ImHardcory
Congrats to Pano Kanelos, an HxA advisory council member and long-term member for taking on a bold new project, leading a new university dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth. cc:
@JonHaidt
@GlennLoury
@sapinker
@bariweiss
Here's the most hope-giving event in higher ed in years: The launch of Austin U, a new U constructed around the telos of truth. I want my kids to go there. I am proud to be on the advisory board
WIN🏆Three universities commit to institutional neutrality:
@Stanford
,
@wsu
, and
@Penn
.
Stanford’s statement on academic freedom now "reaffirms the principles of academic freedom and the avoidance of institutional orthodoxy."⬇️
Heterodox Academy is oriented around a particular set of norms and values, which we have taken to calling the ‘HxA Way’:
-- Make Your Case With Evidence
-- Be Intellectually Charitable
-- Be Intellectually Humble
-- Be Constructive
-- Be Yourself
“Humans, universally, respond badly to being blamed… the ego kicks in as a shield whenever we feel threatened. For tough conversations to succeed, emotional defenses must be lowered all-around…”
By
@IrshadManji
in Heterodox: The HxA Blog:
"There is true suffering going on with men... based on these findings, I would suggest that it’s harder for us to evoke the same concern or sympathy or moral response when we hear those stats or learn about that suffering."
@Chrismartin76
@TaniaArline
We are thrilled to announce the 2020 Open Inquiry Awards winners:
@JohnHMcWhorter
, Leadership; Amy Lai, Exceptional Scholarship;
@JustinTosi
&
@BrandonWarmke
, Exceptional Scholarship; Princeton Open Campus Coalition, Outstanding Student Group; and
@matthewgburgess
, Teaching.
It takes a big person to acknowledge these kinds of errors, and we are grateful both for your retraction, and this model of flexibility, humility and honesty which made the apology possible. Institutions of higher learning, indeed our society overall, could use much more of this.
"We have a need... education that trains one in the habits of exchanging ideas. Not a forum for the debate of settled opinions, where victory is the end, but an education that is the forge and working house of thought itself."
@stjohnscollege
"Take back the right to speak your mind—thoughtfully, courteously, w/ a goal in mind beyond giving offense. The list of unmentionable truths expands so rapidly, w/out reason... so that they forget the exhilaration of a lungful of air"
@AbigailShrier
"Thinking like a scientist doesn’t mean you need to own a telescope or buy a microscope. It means you don’t let your ideas become your identity. You listen to the views that make you think hard, not just the ones that make you feel good."
@AdamMGrant
"Unmoored from religious tradition, many reach for political fundamentalism to provide a sense of identity and purpose for their lives, and pursue political activism as a means of engaging in fellowship with like-minded believers."
@Musa_alGharbi
@ifyc
"Valdary believes that “woke” approaches to DEI incorporate “racecraft,” which is distorting and counterproductive. But she cheers attempts to create workplaces that reduce alienation and isolation."
@cvaldary
@conor64
@TheAtlantic
"Portland State University denied my course on conservatism a place in the course catalog... I will be able to teach the course without a permanent course number only one more time until it is permanently banished. Its syllabus, at least, will live on."
"At
@BrandeisU
and
@Harvard
, more than 60% of *liberal* students felt that unpopular opinions could not be expressed freely on their campus -- and their moderate and conservative peers agreed."
@CohenCenter
@ConversationUS
"A new survey has recently come out showing that most college students are fearful about discussing their views on politics, race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion on campus."
@Forbes
"Since the late 1960s, researchers have surveyed young people on their levels of empathy...
@SaraKonrath
collected decades of studies... [contemporary] young people on average measure 40 percent less empathetic than my own generation..."
@NPR
@HannaRosin
"The editors think that academic work ought not to describe what the scholar takes to be reality if revealing or calling attention to that reality is 'hurtful' and 'divisive.'"
@chronicle
@AndrewKoppelman
@GutkinLen
What happens when public policy meets the complex world of modern gender identity?
For our last episode this season, we are thrilled to share tomorrow this interesting discussion with renowned British philosopher and writer
@Docstockk
Subscribe here
"Diversity-related training should start by explaining bias, discrimination, nepotism and motivated reasoning as general cognitive tendencies, which all people are susceptible to..."
@Musa_alGharbi
on Heterodox Out Loud
"By raising the pursuit of justice over the pursuit of knowledge, the comfort college discards the very tools needed to achieve true justice."
The argument here resonates strongly with one by
@JonHaidt
, that the university must center truth as its telos.
@jordanbpeterson
Studies suggest Marxists outnumber conservatives in some soc. research fields []. But this is not because most are Marxist, but because there are so few on the right. Even in the most unbalanced fields (like sociology), Marxists nowhere near a majority.
“You may disagree with everything I believe, say, and write, but it is in everyone’s interests that you support my freedom to believe, say, and write it."
@EPoe187
@Quillette
"Professors and leaders of educational institutions have a fiduciary duty toward their students that requires them to oppose monomania and lead students out of its stultifying embrace."
@JonHaidt
@JoinPersuasion
“If you disagree with someone, you don’t shout them down; you make an argument for what you think.” Leda Cosmides in our new video: (you can subscribe to our YouTube channel there too!)
“Elite universities in the U.S. overwhelmingly identify the concept of diversity with demographic subtypes of diversity such as race, ethnicity or gender over intellectual denotations of diversity such as opinions, principles or ideas.”
@DavidRozado
"Facts not feelings" has become a refrain among many analysts and scholars today -- particularly among those who criticize the left. In an excellent essay,
@JohnRWoodJr
explains the problem with this approach:
“Representative survey data... reveal that most minorities do not support racial quotas, do not blame their group’s lack of progress on racism, and are much less enthusiastic about diversity and open borders than white liberals...”
@epkaufm
@theammind
"The reality on campus is that these mobs are run by small minorities of students and activist administrators. In contrast, today’s students as a whole are far more open and balanced than news stories reveal."
@SamuelAbramsAEI
@dcexaminer
Cory J. Clark is one of our esteemed Open Inquiry Awards winners, receiving the 2024 award for Exceptional Scholarship. She is recognized for projects that expose bias and censorship in science and her leadership of the Adversarial Collaboration Project.
"We could teach the classics to show students how ideas of fairness and justice are culturally and historically constructed; instead, we are using literature...as mere props to help us perform our progressive values."
@ArcDigi
"This emerging academic generation... seems to double-down on the older generation’s worst trait (ideological certainty) while skimping out on its greatest strengths (genuine erudition and intellectual curiosity)."
@tonytost
@clayroutledge
@Quillette
The skeptics are wrong, there IS a
#freespeech
crisis on campus. Our new [and important] blog post by
@JonHaidt
and HxA research director Sean Stevens explains:
"But if all [academic freedom] means is that professors keep their jobs only at the sufferance of students, then it means nothing at all." -
@RadioFreeTom
@TheAtlantic
"Sociologists were most likely to identify as left-wing followed by Psychologists, Political Scientists, Law scholars & Economists.
In no discipline did right-wing academics outnumber or come close to balancing their left-wing counterparts"
@GoodwinMJ
Happy birthday to John Stuart Mill, whose eloquent defense of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement continues to inspire the work of HxA—and that of so many who promote free expression in an open society 🎉
Disinformation, conformist culture, & loss of trust in our epistemic institutions - How do we find a way forward? Join
@JonHaidt
and
@jon_rauch
for a riveting conversation. Sept. 21, 7pm ET. Register now!
“White college students and graduates were significantly more likely than the average black or Hispanic respondent to brand these (microaggression) statements as ‘offensive.’”
By
@Musa_alGharbi
in
@contextsmag
:
"The expanded definitions of racism and sexism are rooted in an understandable desire to protect members of marginalized groups, but they do not bring us any closer to that goal."
@irakresh
@Quillette
"But one reason left-wing authoritarianism barely shows up in social-psychology research is that most academic experts in the field are based at institutions where prevailing attitudes are far to the left of society as a whole."
@slsatel
@TheAtlantic
Often the perspectives and interests of black Americans are discussed in monolithic terms. At
@QuilletteM
,
@JohnRWoodJr
explores the deep heterodoxy among major contemporary black cultural, intellectual and political figures:
Free thinking matters most in the very places it's becoming less common: universities.
If you or someone you know has felt pressured to go along with campus groupthink, start our Campus Community to help keep curiosity alive.
We'll help. Here's what you need to know ⬇️
"Our main psychological organizations...have...taken a reflexively 'woke' and, I’d argue, antiscience position of not questioning the dogma of CRT at all."
@CJFerguson1111
@ksenapathy
True diversity must include
#viewpointdiversity
. Echo chambers only deepen ideologies and draw fences around perspectives such that mutual understanding becomes more difficult. The quality of research and output suffers as a result.
"a liberal-democratic society... requires that its citizens experience a liberal education, one that teaches students, scholars, readers, and voters to keep looking at books, history, society, and politics from different points of view"
@TheAtlantic
"Truth U dies when it becomes intellectually uniform or politically orthodox." Subscribe to HxA's newest podcast, Heterodox Out Loud. Listen to
@JonHaidt
read his instructive and powerful piece, "Why Universities Must Choose One: Truth or Social Justice."
Dropping the diversity statement requirement for prospective faculty
@MIT
? HxA President John Tomasi says it's good news. There isn't any evidence that requiring these statements has made hiring fairer or improved the college experience for any student.
"A system of checks and balances harnesses ambition to motivate people to counter each other’s biases and factionalism, leading to a system that produces more reliable knowledge than any system run centrally by authorities."
"I followed all of the protocols of academia. I published articles in peer-reviewed journals. I shared my ideas, always politely, on Twitter, and I encouraged people to debate me and to criticize my ideas. And I was fired.”
@EPoe187
@Quillette
“We cannot evaluate models if we do not understand statistics, and statistics education is sorely lacking in America, among the general public, policymakers, and even scientific professionals.”
By David Randall: