I think there are potential examples of “suppressed” innovation due to our ideology. Our political ideology is based on a particular view of individual psychology and sociology. I mentioned the view of the state as an antagonistic actor and the idea that society doesn’t transcend the individual. Both of these assumptions are absent from other traditions (pre-Englightenment West, Confucian, etc) and both appear to set the bounds of how we reason about people and society. I would add to this the idea that morality is problematic in that it doesn’t fit into the natural world without revision, which is perhaps the central philosophical problem that led to modern Western political ideology, and is the reason we look for legal and institutional solutions to social problems rather than the character-centric solutions common to traditional approaches.
It would be very hard, I think, for a Western sociologist or a political scientist to argue for a view of the individual and of society that wasn’t compatible with our political ideology. This also restricts the available possibilities in psychology because we tend to strongly favour “internal” solutions (representations, models, etc) rather than solutions that would imply the interdependence between individuals and culture/society. But again, only occasionally does this rise to the point where people say, “this is too weird!” Usually the suppression is more subtle. There are just certain places we don’t go, intellectually, because the coherence of our ideology depends on it not being true. I think it’s very hard to get a grip on how restrictive your own ideology is because of this.
For example, it’s possible to imagine that I might come up with a psychological theory that seemingly justifies authoritarianism and that might provoke a reaction in others, but what of a psychological theory that shows our very concept of authority to be mistaken? What if I think we’re confused about what freedom is altogether? It’s likely that such a theory would still be evaluated as authoritarian (or not) within the ideology it seemingly undermines. But the situation can be more subtle still. For example, many people have argued that the problem of free will is a non-problem. But what does a world where this question has been dissolved really look like? It certainly doesn’t look like our intellectual climate. Dissolution is merely accepted among the pantheon of answers. You could say that our ideology is especially defined by what we consider a problem rather than the answers we consider legitimate. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our society is organised around ideas that come from the same era as many of our most intractable philosophical problems.
As someone who believes mainstream cognitive science is mistaken, I run into this issue all the time. Even people in heterodox research seem to have a hard time taking their theories “all the way.” I think it’s at least plausible that the sticking point here is an intolerance of the genuinely ideologically strange. In fact, I became interested in heterodox, pre-Enlightenment and non-Western political ideology while doing research in heterodox cognitive science, because it helps me clear away biases. So I’ve spent some time reading about other cultures and other eras and trying to get a handle on their perspective, so that I can “think outside the box.” Of course, I could be wrong about mainstream cognitive science, but I think it’s clear there are avenues of investigation that are closed off because they are intermingled with actually weird out-group stuff. I wonder if it’s possible to genuinely dissolve problems without becoming an outsider of sorts.
I think there are potential examples of “suppressed” innovation due to our ideology. Our political ideology is based on a particular view of individual psychology and sociology. I mentioned the view of the state as an antagonistic actor and the idea that society doesn’t transcend the individual. Both of these assumptions are absent from other traditions (pre-Englightenment West, Confucian, etc) and both appear to set the bounds of how we reason about people and society. I would add to this the idea that morality is problematic in that it doesn’t fit into the natural world without revision, which is perhaps the central philosophical problem that led to modern Western political ideology, and is the reason we look for legal and institutional solutions to social problems rather than the character-centric solutions common to traditional approaches.
It would be very hard, I think, for a Western sociologist or a political scientist to argue for a view of the individual and of society that wasn’t compatible with our political ideology. This also restricts the available possibilities in psychology because we tend to strongly favour “internal” solutions (representations, models, etc) rather than solutions that would imply the interdependence between individuals and culture/society. But again, only occasionally does this rise to the point where people say, “this is too weird!” Usually the suppression is more subtle. There are just certain places we don’t go, intellectually, because the coherence of our ideology depends on it not being true. I think it’s very hard to get a grip on how restrictive your own ideology is because of this.
For example, it’s possible to imagine that I might come up with a psychological theory that seemingly justifies authoritarianism and that might provoke a reaction in others, but what of a psychological theory that shows our very concept of authority to be mistaken? What if I think we’re confused about what freedom is altogether? It’s likely that such a theory would still be evaluated as authoritarian (or not) within the ideology it seemingly undermines. But the situation can be more subtle still. For example, many people have argued that the problem of free will is a non-problem. But what does a world where this question has been dissolved really look like? It certainly doesn’t look like our intellectual climate. Dissolution is merely accepted among the pantheon of answers. You could say that our ideology is especially defined by what we consider a problem rather than the answers we consider legitimate. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our society is organised around ideas that come from the same era as many of our most intractable philosophical problems.
As someone who believes mainstream cognitive science is mistaken, I run into this issue all the time. Even people in heterodox research seem to have a hard time taking their theories “all the way.” I think it’s at least plausible that the sticking point here is an intolerance of the genuinely ideologically strange. In fact, I became interested in heterodox, pre-Enlightenment and non-Western political ideology while doing research in heterodox cognitive science, because it helps me clear away biases. So I’ve spent some time reading about other cultures and other eras and trying to get a handle on their perspective, so that I can “think outside the box.” Of course, I could be wrong about mainstream cognitive science, but I think it’s clear there are avenues of investigation that are closed off because they are intermingled with actually weird out-group stuff. I wonder if it’s possible to genuinely dissolve problems without becoming an outsider of sorts.