Among many other harms it has inflicted on the country, higher education bears considerable responsibility for the politicization of science. The felt need to conform to “progressive” beliefs in the academy has pushed science away from a dispassionate search for knowledge. It’s now more important to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings.
That is one of the takeaways from Professor John Staddon’s new book Science in an Age of Unreason, which I review today for the Martin Center.
Staddon writes, “Weak science lets slip the dogs of unreason: many social scientists have difficulty separating facts from faith, reality from the way they would like things to be. Critical research topics have become taboo, which, in turn, means that policy makers are making decisions based more on ideologically driven political pressure than on scientific fact.”
Government programs and university pressures have badly distorted the incentives facing those who do scientific research. These days, careers depend on getting lots of publishable results, and the quest for quantity is hurting quality.
Worse, the mania for “diversity” has infected science, overriding other considerations when it comes to hiring of faculty and what topics will or won’t be studied. Furthermore, “science” is now routinely used as a cudgel to get people to go along with various beliefs — such as global warming and the need for extraordinary measures against Covid — that lead to the expansion of government power.
Staddon has written a super book, and I recommend it highly.