Matt Lutz at Humean Report:
A few hours ago, something of a bomb got dropped on the humanities. A new report was commissioned by the Chancellors of Vanderbilt University and Washington University last year, with the goal of assessing the merit of various accusations that have been leveled at the academic humanities in recent years. The mission:
Several scientists have alleged over the years that there is widespread misunderstanding and misuse of natural science in the work of prominent humanists. Philosophers have worried about the unquestioning embrace of problematic philosophical views, especially those concerning truth, evidence and knowledge. More recently, many different voices have suggested that humanistic disciplines have allowed background ideological values to distort the objective pursuit of knowledge in those fields.
To help us assess whether, and to what extent, there is a problem here, we charge a commission of eminent scholars from these disciplines to examine the state of scholarly work in their respective areas and to evaluate whether these allegations are justified.
And a commission of eminent scholars was, indeed, empaneled. 10 scholars from different areas of the humanities are listed as authors of the report, 4 of which are philosophers. And those four – Paul Boghossian, Kit Fine, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Gideon Rosen – are among the most senior, respected philosophers working today. A murderer’s row, if you will.
More here.
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