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I've never been sure whether or not this is a problem. Academics are not a representative cross-section of the American people, so there's no real reason to exp
by iaosfgnionio 8y ago
I've never been sure whether or not this is a problem. Academics are not a representative cross-section of the American people, so there's no real reason to expect their political opinions to be representative.
I would argue that professors should know better than the general public. In that case, we should want to see true beliefs over-represented and false ones under-represented. So-called liberal and conservative beliefs are often mutually exclusive. That means that at most one of them can be true. Wouldn't that suggest that, if academics are doing their job of finding the truth, they should be biased? If professors were half liberal and half conservative, that means that at least 50% of them are wrong.
If liberal beliefs are true, this bias might be what we want. If they're false, of course, then it clearly isn't.
Or maybe not. Professors and administrators are responsible for teaching. There is certainly an argument to be made that a diversity of viewpoints is useful. Informed and well-reasoned positions might be useful for education even if half of them are wrong. And a spirited debate among peers could help everyone learn and come closer to the truth.
If the bias were the other way, with 90% of administrators being conservatives, would this author be saying the same things? Would I be saying the same things? I think the answer to both is "probably not." Or, if we said the same things, we'd definitely feel differently about them.
- JoHawth31 8y agoA couple things I think you’re missing: Your assumption that one of the positions, either liberal or conservative, must be correct, is wrong. Second, the assumption that professors know better than the general population in all cases is also incorrect. People in academia have a way of thinking that is sometimes divorced from reality and real world experience. Professors can be much more wrong than the general population in some cases. This highlights the original point: viewpoint diversity and rigorous debate are the best tools for discovering truth. If your idea is so fragile it can’t exist outside of some protected ecosystem, the idea probably isn’t very good to begin with.
- iaosfgnionio 8y ago>Your assumption that one of the positions, either liberal or conservative, must be correct, is wrong. I didn't say that. I said that at most one is right. I would also say that, even if both are wrong, one is probably wronger than the other. >Second, the assumption that professors know better than the general population in all cases is also incorrect. I didn't assume they do know better. But I think we should want them to. Which would imply they should be "biased."