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318 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2021
“… two rules on which the modern liberal epistemic order—what I call “liberal science”—is founded: no final say and no personal authority. I argued that wherever people adhere to those rules, they will form a community of error-seeking inquirers accountable to each other but never to any particular authority, and knowledge will arise from their hive-like, largely self-organizing activities.”
❝In his book The Constitution of Knowledge, Jonathan Rauch describes the historical breakthrough in which Western societies developed an “epistemic operating system”—that is, a set of institutions for generating knowledge from the interactions of biased and cognitively flawed individuals. English law developed the adversarial system so that biased advocates could present both sides of a case to an impartial jury. Newspapers full of lies evolved into professional journalistic enterprises, with norms that required seeking out multiple sides of a story, followed by editorial review, followed by fact-checking. Universities evolved from cloistered medieval institutions into research powerhouses, creating a structure in which scholars put forth evidence-backed claims with the knowledge that other scholars around the world would be motivated to gain prestige by finding contrary evidence.I despair at how many intelligent people I know find it wise to not trust any media. I’m a little more sympathetic at the distrust of the government. But I’m also aghast at the lack of trust of scientific institutions, which Rauch (or maybe Haidt) conflates with Universities. I’m not optimistic this will end well, but I want to read those who are analyzing the collapse of our civilization.)
❝Part of America’s greatness in the 20th century came from having developed the most capable, vibrant, and productive network of knowledge-producing institutions in all of human history, linking together the world’s best universities, private companies that turned scientific advances into life-changing consumer products, and government agencies that supported scientific research and led the collaboration that put people on the moon.
❝But this arrangement, Rauch notes, “is not self-maintaining; it relies on an array of sometimes delicate social settings and understandings, and those need to be understood, affirmed, and protected.” So what happens when an institution is not well maintained and internal disagreement ceases, either because its people have become ideologically uniform or because they have become afraid to dissent?❞
[One] could frame the explosion of trolling and cancelling on social media, in part, as an epistemic insurrection against those who have held the power over discourse for so long. At no other time in history have people been so easily able to organize and have their voices heard when speaking out against the oppressive forces that aim to marginalize them. Rauch’s Constitution of Knowledge may have worked for the enlightenment thinkers he showcases, but if it is to have any success in governing the truth in modern society, there must be structures in place to ensure equal voice and justice at the epistemic bargaining table.