Anyone wandering around Britomart on December 6 may find themselves taking part in street epistemology. That is, they may be asked to interrogate their deepest assumptions about particular issues, probably controversial, by the world’s most well known exponent of street epistemology, American professor Peter Boghossian. And have their responses recorded, to be viewed online sometime in the new year.
Boghossian coined the term ‘street epistemology’ in his 2013 book A Manual for Creating Atheists, intended to foster non-confrontational techniques for discussing strongly held beliefs.
It’s fair to say his subsequent career has enabled him to hone these techniques. As one of three academics responsible for a celebrated hoax known as the grievance studies affair, you could say he has been courting controversy since that rebellion in 2017. The grievance studies affair saw some of their bogus papers on subjects as arcane as human reactions to dog rape culture and queer performativity in parks and the conceptual penis as a social construct being accepted by several academic journals, commended by some, but ultimately caught out.
The point of their work was not just to demonstrate how fanciful and untethered from reality academia had become, but also to show how thoroughly academia had been captured by the woke left. Boghossian is a big fan of testing ideas via free speech which made him a natural choice for a nationwide tour of the country by the ever expanding Free Speech Union.
The grievance studies affair, as well as his views on au courant issues such as trans, didn’t just lose him friends but ultimately also his position at Portland University. In 2020 he resigned from Portland, citing harassment and a lack of intellectual freedom. In 2021 he was among the founders of the University of Austin, intended to be a ‘fiercely independent’ alternative to the ‘illiberalism’ of other college campuses.
The emergence of new academic institutions, as well as new media, is a signal that woke is on the run after 15 years rampaging through society. Change is coming. Is Boghossian bothered that no one from legacy media interviewed him while he was in New Zealand? Not a bit of it.
“F**k them. Mainstream media is doomed so why should I contribute to their readership? I don’t want to do anything with them. I’d rather talk to new media, new platforms and substacks. Mainstream media is engaged in a form of assisted suicide. It’s a bit like someone who is in hospice but doesn't know it yet.”
On the other hand, he knows that Amercian scholarship is responsible for the most egregious woke excesses in institutions all around the western world.
“It’s a form of neo-colonialism, it really is, and because academia has suppressed free speech, they have lost the best method of error correction.”
The corruption is endemic. Academic institutions validate their ricketty scholarship by means of what he calls “idea laundering”, that is, having other corrupted publications and organisations endorse their work.
And when scandals like the plagiarism of the former president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, are exposed, they rally round even before there is an investigation and declare her innocent. As the first black president of Harvard, Gay was widely regarded as a DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) hire. She eventually resigned.
“Imagine if we found that some pilots had been cheating on their exams. That would be terrifying. You should fire them. But we can’t be honest about the reason why they didn’t fire her (Gay). And it’s so easy. All you have to say is ‘if you plagiarise as an academic we will fire you.’”
No one trusts institutions any more, he says, and it’s no wonder. By embracing the views of the progressive left, the institutions have fostered a legitimacy crisis. He’s written about this too of course.
Boghossian has written and spoken so much about all these issues, it’s easy to see his frustration at their continued dominance.
“It’s infuriating,” he says, throwing his hands up. “Really, to fix this, it’s not complicated. Start with free speech. Seek out people who disagree with you, have a conversation. Imagine the hubris if you only talk to people who agree with you. The arrogance of thinking that every one of your beliefs is true. Free speech is the best method of error corrections we have.”
Street epistemology is all about asking questions so it’s appropriate that Boghossian should ask what topics to raise in Auckland. The obvious answer, in my opinion, is anything to do with Maori sovereignty and equal rights. Boghossian nods. Yes, he’d thought that might be appropriate.
So that’s it then. December 6. Britomart. Maori rights. You have been warned.
Yvonne van Dongen is a journalist, travel writer, playwright and non-fiction author. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
It’s fair to say his subsequent career has enabled him to hone these techniques. As one of three academics responsible for a celebrated hoax known as the grievance studies affair, you could say he has been courting controversy since that rebellion in 2017. The grievance studies affair saw some of their bogus papers on subjects as arcane as human reactions to dog rape culture and queer performativity in parks and the conceptual penis as a social construct being accepted by several academic journals, commended by some, but ultimately caught out.
The point of their work was not just to demonstrate how fanciful and untethered from reality academia had become, but also to show how thoroughly academia had been captured by the woke left. Boghossian is a big fan of testing ideas via free speech which made him a natural choice for a nationwide tour of the country by the ever expanding Free Speech Union.
The grievance studies affair, as well as his views on au courant issues such as trans, didn’t just lose him friends but ultimately also his position at Portland University. In 2020 he resigned from Portland, citing harassment and a lack of intellectual freedom. In 2021 he was among the founders of the University of Austin, intended to be a ‘fiercely independent’ alternative to the ‘illiberalism’ of other college campuses.
The emergence of new academic institutions, as well as new media, is a signal that woke is on the run after 15 years rampaging through society. Change is coming. Is Boghossian bothered that no one from legacy media interviewed him while he was in New Zealand? Not a bit of it.
“F**k them. Mainstream media is doomed so why should I contribute to their readership? I don’t want to do anything with them. I’d rather talk to new media, new platforms and substacks. Mainstream media is engaged in a form of assisted suicide. It’s a bit like someone who is in hospice but doesn't know it yet.”
On the other hand, he knows that Amercian scholarship is responsible for the most egregious woke excesses in institutions all around the western world.
“It’s a form of neo-colonialism, it really is, and because academia has suppressed free speech, they have lost the best method of error correction.”
The corruption is endemic. Academic institutions validate their ricketty scholarship by means of what he calls “idea laundering”, that is, having other corrupted publications and organisations endorse their work.
And when scandals like the plagiarism of the former president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, are exposed, they rally round even before there is an investigation and declare her innocent. As the first black president of Harvard, Gay was widely regarded as a DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) hire. She eventually resigned.
“Imagine if we found that some pilots had been cheating on their exams. That would be terrifying. You should fire them. But we can’t be honest about the reason why they didn’t fire her (Gay). And it’s so easy. All you have to say is ‘if you plagiarise as an academic we will fire you.’”
No one trusts institutions any more, he says, and it’s no wonder. By embracing the views of the progressive left, the institutions have fostered a legitimacy crisis. He’s written about this too of course.
Boghossian has written and spoken so much about all these issues, it’s easy to see his frustration at their continued dominance.
“It’s infuriating,” he says, throwing his hands up. “Really, to fix this, it’s not complicated. Start with free speech. Seek out people who disagree with you, have a conversation. Imagine the hubris if you only talk to people who agree with you. The arrogance of thinking that every one of your beliefs is true. Free speech is the best method of error corrections we have.”
Street epistemology is all about asking questions so it’s appropriate that Boghossian should ask what topics to raise in Auckland. The obvious answer, in my opinion, is anything to do with Maori sovereignty and equal rights. Boghossian nods. Yes, he’d thought that might be appropriate.
So that’s it then. December 6. Britomart. Maori rights. You have been warned.
Yvonne van Dongen is a journalist, travel writer, playwright and non-fiction author. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
3 comments:
The only problem I see with that is -will people feel able to be totally honest and upfront?
What happens when the social sciences become ideologically driven pseudosciences was exemplified by the 'Sokal Hoax' of 1996 when a professor of physics, Alan Sokal, submitted a paper 100% in the tongue-in-cheek bullshit category to a social science journal. They took it seriously and published it as a work of great insight. Readers who can cope with academic jargon will get a titter or three out of reading this bogus paper.
“Mainstream media is engaged in a form of assisted suicide.”
How true.
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