There’s a grand conflict between the following two commitments at universities:
1. The commitment to Truth
2. The commitment to Social Justice
Jonathan Haidt, a Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University, recently wrote an article on the conflict between the above two commitments and identifies its following two patrons.
Truth University
Truth University’s patron is the philosopher John Stuart Mill who sees truth as a process in which flawed individuals come together and challenge each other’s incomplete reasoning through open and rational discussion:
“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…” –John Stuart Mill, 1859
Truth University dies when it becomes intellectually uniform or politically orthodox as there’s no ground for intellectual diversity anymore. At Truth University, there is no such thing as blasphemy. Everything can be said and discussed through a process in which bad ideas get refuted, but not punished.
Social Justice University
Social Justice University’s patron is Karl Marx who is oriented around changing the world by an overthrow of power structures and privilege and is inspired by:
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.” –Karl Marx, 1845
Social Justice University sees political diversity as an obstacle to action for social change, and wants to implement laws that encourage conformity. Therefore, there are ideas, facts, and theories that people are not allowed to hold. The greatest motivation for intellectual conformity is to protect members from ‘oppression’. Hence, Social Justice University students are enmeshed in a safety culture. It provides safe spaces and trigger warnings that protect these fragile young students from danger and 'intellectual violence'.
Why we should get rid of Social Justice University
My suggestion is to always take Truth over Social Justice and to respect the divinity of speech. We should never back down on Social Justice Warriors who want to control what we can say, and we should never feel guilty for expressing our freedom of speech in their faces. The goal in our life is to find a personal higher meaning that we find worth living for.
What does finding such a personal higher meaning require? It requires personal responsibility over our actions. Personal responsibility and action are intricately linked to our thought and speech as it is with our mind that we plan and craft our action in our search for meaning. If there are people who control what we can think or say, there’s no possibility to live responsibly anymore. We merely become robots, devoid of choices and the possibility to do wrong and to learn from it. Moral and responsible human beings grow in conflicts and challenges. They don’t flourish in safe spaces.
Finally, let me reiterate what we should do in this grand battle between Truth and Social Justice:
We should never back down on Social Justice Warriors who want to control our speech, and never feel guilty for expressing our freedom of speech in their faces. We cannot find a higher meaning to our lives if we don't believe in the divinity of speech and responsibility.
Reference
https://heterodoxacademy.org/2016/10/21/one-telos-truth-or-social-justice/