A collection of 391 posts
The path to progress is definitely not paved by destroying the epistemological framework bequeathed to us by the Enlightenment.
The ranks of this new ruling class are refreshed by immigrant academics who come to understand themselves in the way progressivism understands them: as minorities who can also act victim-like if they want—a precious endowment in the cultural academic market.
But it is sad to see established facts now suppressed along with undesirable beliefs and opinions. And to see our institutions of higher learning being led to this kind of neo-obscurantism in the name of enlightened social attitudes.
Two hours to the west of Montreal, the University of Ottawa is now in the midst of its own racism-free anti-racism social panic.
The socio-economic arguments are based on data indicating that the number of humanities graduates has declined rapidly since the financial crisis in 2008.
Interference by external actors comprises any attempt by those outside the academy to encroach upon the free speech rights of university members.
The moral community is now self-reproducing. It is also self-radicalising.
The main beneficiaries are more likely to be privileged administrators who burnish their bona fides by filling alumni magazines and email blasts with Indigenous photo-ops.
The central point of contention seems to be between math’s claim to universal truth and the kind of subjective, lived-experience approach embraced by many social justice movements.
The reason these books endure and will be read long after the writers of littérature engagée harping on a string of fashionable social trends are ridiculed and forgotten, is their aesthetic impact.
A huge part of Duncan’s appeal is his humble, layman’s approach.
Everyone, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, is free to explore their own spiritual beliefs, of course. But the university is not the place for such exercises.
It is not hopeless. A recent analysis of research on college graduates suggested that attending college appreciably increased their critical thinking capacity.
The only way students can resist this commodification of their identities is by occupying an unsafe space—getting an education that will encourage them to escape what they think they already are.
The problem, he notes is that there is always going to be a required balance between our trusting inclination of accusations from an apparent victim, and everyone’s inviolable right of due process.