The Constitution of Knowledge
The Constitution of Knowledge
My conversation with journalist, Brookings fellow and author Jonathan Rauch
Appears in this episode
How do we arrive at truth? My guest on the podcast today argues that it is through reality-based communities — in government, media, the law, and science and academia — which collectively determine truth through trial and error, rules and norms, and discussion and debate. All together, he calls this system “the constitution of knowledge.”
But this system is under threat, he says, from both the right and the left. On the right, through the flooding of the public sphere with what’s called “a firehose of falsehoods.” And on the left, through cancel culture. (You can find his useful cancel culture checklist here.)
Jonathan Rauch is a journalist and author in Washington, D.C. He’s a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. His latest book is The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss The Constitution of Knowledge, as well as the pandemic, the importance of viewpoint diversity, emotional safetyism, illiberalism on the left, and why free speech was crucial for winning gay marriage — a movement that Rauch was a prominent activist in. We also cover his recent American Purpose essay on transgender activism, and Trump, and the New Right.
I’m thrilled to have Jonathan Rauch as my guest today. And tomorrow I will be sending out a full transcript.
The Constitution of Knowledge
I highly recommend the movie The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis
You have to be alert and attentive to really enjoy this entertainment because it moves quickly through some very deep and heady dialog that covers the writer's journey from atheist, agnostic, theist and then Christian.
The beautiful aspect of the story is the illustration of what high-level academics used to be; and how related to that, how the topic of the supernatural was debated through robust critical thinking and objective reasoning. C.S. and his brother were sent to private tutor they nicknamed "The Knock" - for his method of knocking students that held positions not backed by evidence that they could convey with reason.
I was thinking about our modern higher-learning crybully snowflakes today... how they can get a professor canceled for upsetting them with the wrong triggering word.
I have said it before and will keep repeating it. Almost all of the ills of the West today are rooted in the corruption and degradation of the Western education system. Ironically it still educates the best and brightest scientists and engineers that go on to make the world a better place. But the corruption and degradation has been expanding into those disciplines too. It is my opinion that saving the West from itself will require an uprising of against the education system to demand reforms back to what it should be. Increased acceptance and belief in God will be a natural byproduct of those improvements... and that too will help heal the West.
I got 6 minutes in before I had to turn it off.