Steven Pinker's Heterodox Standards: When Open Inquiry Meets Race Realism
Added 2025-06-28 22:59:13 +0000 UTCWe discuss the curious lineup at a recent 'heterodox' conference and the differing standards demonstrated by academics when it comes to more questionable outlets.
Comments
The heterodox phenomenon is largely a reaction against perceived left wing bias. So you are unlikely to see left wing thinkers in there.
iffydonatello
2025-07-01 03:47:18 +0000 UTCIn Pinker's defense, I can think of several perfectly valid reasons to be there. Can you?
Andy
2025-06-30 21:54:26 +0000 UTCWell if "heterodox" is a punchline (which yes it seems to be, mostly) you might put the blame at least partly on standard, left-leaning people being reticent to join in. I don't know how "heterodox academy" which is Jonathan Haidt's organisation looks at the moment. It might be a bit better. But I certainly don't want anyone at work seeing my name on that particular list and drawing the conclusion that I secretly agree with Charles Murray. So these organisations tend to drift rightwards. I think it's probably a good thing that Pinker is willing to engage with them, but if there's evidence he's a closet racist then the evidence is the evidence. He probably doesn't need to endorsing a group consisting entirely of people like Gaad Saad and JBP and etc. Or Aporia, sure. But like you say Paul Bloom went on there and the Guardian isn't getting on his case as far as I know. I will say Pinker likes genetic explanations for psychological traits a *lot*, so there is that. These are certainly powerful, but if it's all you think about maybe it moves you in a certain direction who can say.
Colin
2025-06-29 13:54:11 +0000 UTC
