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In this essay I respond to criticisms of Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care? Although the book is not without its flaws, in my view critics have not yet offered a persuasive response to the self-selection account of academic liberalism it lays out.
Liberal bias in academia is a complex sociological issue. The empirical evidence suggests that part of the explanation for ideological imbalance is that conservatives tend to self-select out of careers in higher education. We examine the explanation offered by Neil Gross that political-typing is partially responsible. While we are generally receptive to this explanation, our own research provides...
The essay is a review of some recent books on the phenomenon of dissent in Communist Czechoslovakia. It considers the nature and legacy of the dissidents' confrontation with totalitarian power and examines some of the internal political and philosophical debates within the dissident community.
We take mild issue with some of the conclusions Gross draws from his research into the political commitments of academics, and we draw attention to other research that suggests there are epistemic costs associated with the political imbalance that Gross observes. We question whether incentives and controls currently existing within the social sciences are sufficient to counter these epistemic costs.
On both questions about the political makeup of academia and conservative activism on educational issues, Gross makes definitive causal claims. He postulates a variation of self-selection that relies on political typing of occupations. On conservative activism he argues that moral entrepreneurs utilize animosity towards progressives in higher education to express a populist ideology uniting distinct...
Ideally, the goals a society pursues are predicated on a voluntary consensus of the citenzenry who through their actions in the private and public spheres develop an approximation of the good or just society. However, just like bad-tasting medicine which may have to be force fed in order to get the patient well, the achievement of some elements of the good society seem to involve a group of experts,...
Protestant privilege in mainstream academia was corrected largely by privitization of religion. That led to overcorrection that discourages expression of religious viewpoints in academia and favors secular viewpoints. Self-selection plays a some role in the underrepresentation of traditionalist religioius viewpoints in academia, but discrimination against those who hold such viewpoints is well-documented...
Ernest Hemingway’s aesthetic—a better term than style—is based on constant acts of choice, decisions that he makes as a writer at every moment about which word and phrase to set down on the page. All writers must make choices—what to include, what to exclude. Hemingway is special because his work as a writer foregrounds this fact. The structure of Hemingway’s sentences makes the reader keenly aware...
Why don’t more liberals care about ideological imbalances on university faculties? The answer lies less in our “politics”--as traditionally understood--than in our professional culture, which privileges research over teaching. If we truly respected and embraced the teaching function, we would seek to expose our students to a wider array of faculty opinions. So long as teaching retains its low value,...
This article examines the critique of greed in America, with special reference to how that critique of greed varies with economic conditions. American history is characterized by an alternation between celebrations of acquistion and calls for asceticism. This dialectical process illustrates a fundamental cultural contradiction of American capitalism, first discussed by Daniel Bell. The analysis focuses...
Adam Begley’s Updike satisfies every hunger a reader might have for a good literary biography: sound reporting, trenchant analysis, numerous and apt examples of John Updike’s writing and evidence of a respect for his subject. Begley follows a chronological path through Updike’s bustling writer’s life, examining along the way important moments and milestones that inspired his writing. Begley also makes...
In the post-9/11 era, claims can repeatedly be heard that counterterrorism and related surveillance practices involve illegitimate invasions of privacy, free speech, and other violations of civil liberties. This puzzling theme of a fear of surveillance is echoed in both the relevant scholarly literature and civil liberties activism. We analyze the contemporary discourse on surveillance and civil liberties...
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