The students should insist of firing this fount of deep wisdom to preserve their sanity.
That is true, under two critical assumptions: that the students’ primary goal in this situation is acquiring factually accurate knowledge about reality, and that the events that would be put into motion by placing such a request in practice would further their aims. Considering the reality of the contemporary Western university systems and their broader role in society—especially their parts that deal with topics of this sort—both assumptions are questionable at best.
“Sanity” is also not a good choice of word here. It normally refers to having a view of the world that is not so inaccurate that it would damage one’s instrumental goals (either by entailing self-destructive action or by strong negative signaling). In contrast, certain types of inaccurate beliefs that have no such negative instrumental consequences can have highly beneficial status- and affiliation-signaling consequences, so it can be in one’s interest to acquire them. Assuming that the beliefs promoted by the lecturer in question are in the latter category, I’m not sure if I would characterize resistance to his propaganda as “preserving one’s sanity.”
I don’t believe this particular case is one.
Important to whom? The students should insist of firing this fount of deep wisdom to preserve their sanity.
Vladimir_Nesov:
That is true, under two critical assumptions: that the students’ primary goal in this situation is acquiring factually accurate knowledge about reality, and that the events that would be put into motion by placing such a request in practice would further their aims. Considering the reality of the contemporary Western university systems and their broader role in society—especially their parts that deal with topics of this sort—both assumptions are questionable at best.
“Sanity” is also not a good choice of word here. It normally refers to having a view of the world that is not so inaccurate that it would damage one’s instrumental goals (either by entailing self-destructive action or by strong negative signaling). In contrast, certain types of inaccurate beliefs that have no such negative instrumental consequences can have highly beneficial status- and affiliation-signaling consequences, so it can be in one’s interest to acquire them. Assuming that the beliefs promoted by the lecturer in question are in the latter category, I’m not sure if I would characterize resistance to his propaganda as “preserving one’s sanity.”