Glen, Certainly one can follow more than one telos, and given fairly compatible choices one can typically do so for long periods without encountering conflict. But eventually they will conflict, if pursued long enough, and when that happens, there are various courses of action, and various consequences. One course of action is that you can deny the need to pick a priority, and thus handle every instance of a conflict on a case by case basis. That leads to schizophrenic behavior on the part of an organization, with difficult to interpret inconsistencies in the rewards and punishments distributed.
Haidt argues that, we have reached such a state in many universities (to use Nick's phrase they have "passed a point of no return"). Conflicts between truth-seeking objectives and social-justice objectives are so frequent as to be ubiquitous, and the institutions are becoming schizophrenic trying to fully pursue both. Faculty don't know what to do (can we invite a respected expert on a controversial topic?), and administrators don't know what to do when faculty act (yes we put out a call for two-sides debates, but experts on both sides might lead to objections). The students also don't have a principled way to predict when the university will or will not agree with them if they voice an objection. It has, in many places, become a grand mess. The result isn't as dramatic as all this makes it seem, the result is a slow, but steady, decline in the intellectual atmosphere, as everything becomes ever more "safe." ----------- Eric P. Charles, Ph.D. Supervisory Survey Statistician U.S. Marine Corps <[email protected]> On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 1:01 PM, Nick Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > Glen, ‘n all, > > > > I thought Haidt's point was not universal, but that we had passed some > point of no return in the current situation. I have to reread it. > > > > Somebody once wrote a very profound essay on this subject 45 years ago. > Oh, Wait a Minute! It was ME! > <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261728846_The_Failure_of_Pluralism> > I particularly like the author portrait on the title page. > > > > We’ve been here before. Clark Kerr vs The Free Speech Movement, 1964. > > > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ?glen? > Sent: Monday, December 05, 2016 10:15 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Truth vs. Social Justice on college campuses > > > > Is there anything in the study of telos that demands it be unitary? Even > assuming "truth" and "social justice" are fundamentally disjoint, why must > a university choose one over the other when they "collide"? The epithet > "linear thinker" comes to mind. > > > > Haidt's parenthetical is important: "But an institution such as a > university must have one and only one highest and inviolable good." > > > > Institutions are complex, whether more or less so than the individuals > composing them is debatable. But anyone who sells you with a pitch > claiming that a university is a simple structure that must have a single > arching _purpose_ is obviously a huckster of some sort. > > > > > > On 12/05/2016 07:33 AM, Eric Charles wrote: > > > Seems like the type of thing this group likes to digest. (Note, there > > > is an outline of the talk below the video, so you don't need to watch > > > anything.) > > > > > > http://heterodoxacademy.org/2016/10/21/one-telos-truth-or-social-justi > > > ce/ > > > > -- > > ␦glen? > > > > ============================================================ > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >
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