Are you Heterodox?

Heterodox Academy was founded in 2015 by Jonathan Haidt, Chris Martin, and Nicholas Rosenkranz, in reaction to their observations about the negative impact a lack of ideological diversity has had on the quality of research within their disciplines.

Do you believe that this lack of ideological diversity exists in academia and in the wider world in general? Is orthodoxy ever a good thing?

Do you consider yourself heterodox?

Heterodoxy is a willingness to go against your tribe, whether your tribe is liberal or conservative. If you consider yourself to be heterodox, can you give any personal examples? Thanks.

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firefall · 61-69, M

Depends what you include as academia. The "Social sciences" and arts&letters seem to be heavy on enforced groupthink.
Science&Math, far less so, as things are actually subject to proofs

Murmurs · 31-35, F

@firefall You say that (and I acknowledge this is hearsay), but I've a friend who's an academic physicist and her university is currently spending seven-figure sums on studies to "decolonise" the sciences.

Much of the nonsense is driven by HR departments, whether in business or universities or other contexts, of course, so in a way I guess you're still right.

All the same, while I absolutely detest the incumbent gov. of Florida but when he (without realising quite what he's saying, ofc), when he refers to a particular set of assumptions and general ideology as a "mind virus" he's not actually far from the truth. Rather annoyingly.

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irishmolly72 · 56-60, F

@FaithfulTalia

Sometimes when we look at data we can choose which way would be the best to combat problems.

If that's true then maybe social sciences aren't sciences at all? Just asking.

For example, hypotheses need to be falsifiable or they aren't necessarily even valid. Falsifiability is a key notion in the separation of science from non-science and pseudoscience according to Carl Popper. Can observational data, even though collected objectively, ever provide the rigouous conclusions of a controlled clinical trial? How then do we decide its degree of validity?

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irishmolly72 · 56-60, F

@FaithfulTalia Sounds like you've only ever seen white swans, so I guess that's all there are.

Case closed. 🤣

irishmolly72 · 56-60, F

@firefall

The "Social sciences" and arts&letters seem to be heavy on enforced groupthink.

Do you think there's any enforced groupthink in environmental science?

Here's an interesting video.
[media=https://youtu.be/vVi01vJ4nxM]

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firefall · 61-69, M

@FaithfulTalia II have never studied sociology (yet, anyway), so I bow to your superior knowledge. I didnt realise they used hard statistics so much.

irishmolly72 · 56-60, F

@firefall

I didnt realise they used hard statistics so much.

😅

irishmolly72 · 56-60, F

@FaithfulTalia I pretty much know how it works. That's why I say what I say. 😉