The dead end of Research Justice
Author: Denny Burk. I' ve been reading through Helen Pluckrose’s and James Lindsay’s new book and I thought I would highlight one particular item that the authors address in the early chapters— research justice . In Cynical Theories , the authors demonstrate that modern Critical Theory is essentially applied post-modernism. Applied post-modernism involves a number of ideological commitments including: Scepticism about whether objective knowledge or truth is obtainable. A belief in cultural constructivism. A belief that society is formed of systems of power and hierarchies, which decide what can be known and how. These commitments lead to the conclusion that reason-based and evidence-based arguments are culturally constructed ways of knowing that should not have priority over other ways of knowing (e.g., emotivism, spiritism, superstition, experience, etc.). In fact, reason-based and evidence-based arguments are just one more way that a white majority impose...