Posted by Juan Non-Volokh: Kerr Contra Krugman: I don't beleive Orin was unfair to [1]Krugman in his [2]post below. Contrary to [3]Kleiman's claim, Krugman does attack "conservatives" generally. In the last three paragraphs he specifically accuses "conservatives" of Lysenkoism and of seeking to "chill" scholarly inquiry. Those seem like pretty stiff charges to me. Krugman draws a parallel between the lack of conservatives in the humanities with the lack of Republicans in the sciences, and blames the disparities, at least in part, on "conservatives" "themselves." Why is it partly their fault? Because of conservatives' aforementioned Lysenkoism and Republicans' alleged preference for "revelation, not research." Yes, Krugman says Republicans do things to alienate academics. But he also attacks the academic orientation of "conservatives" as such. Indeed, he has to do both to make his point, as many of the studies of ideological bias in academia find that liberals outnumber conservatives in academia, and not simply that Democrats outnumber Republicans. Meanwhile, while Krugman thinks those on the Right are anti-intellectual, his colleague [4]David Brooks finds the head of a liberal think tank cannot name a favorite philosopher.
References 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/opinion/05krugman.html?hp 2. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_04_03-2005_04_09.shtml#1112675459 3. http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/_/2005/04/abusive_misrepresentation.php 4. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/opinion/05brooks.html?hp _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://highsorcery.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
