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The renowned American philosopher and college professor, philosopher Peter Boghossian gave a lecture on the topic of myths, hoaxes and pseudoscience at MCC. The intriguing event shed light on the growing influence of ideologies on scientific journals and academic institutions has contributed to a growing "crisis of confidence".
The growing influence of ideologies on scientific journals and academic institutions has contributed to a growing "crisis of confidence". As a result, public confidence in academia and other institutions such as journals and traditional media has been shaken. Professor Boghossian’s lecture explored how this loss of trust has affected academic institutions and outlined strategies to restore public trust.
Would you want to fly on a plane with an airline pilot who cheated, lied and fabricated their credentials to fly the plane, or would you want someone to put a fire out at your house if your apartment was burning down if the person taking the exam had cheated and lied and fabricated their credentials? – the answer is no – said Peter Boghossian. According to him it is a huge problem that nowadays we have a lot of people in academia, who have fabricated their credentials, who teach under false pretenses. The bigger problem is – he says – that these people are not being fired. He mentioned Claudin Gay as an example, who was found to have plagiarized some of her past works, including her dissertation. Despite the series of plagiarism, she was not fired, she had just moved to a different department, keeping her six-figure salary. Letting “academists” like her continue to teach results in a compromised knowledge production system – concluded Boghossian.
He also shed light on the fact that in many cases only those academic articles can be published which have conclusions favorable to a certain audience group. Because of this bias the days of the United States is numbered, since the US must compete with other countries where the knowledge production is not compromised. The only way to fix the system would be to fire all the people who plagiarize, but we do not do it – said Boghossian. Additionally, he mentioned that today’s world is very much polarized, and it is very hard to have discussions about certain topics. It is very hard to have a discussion with someone who does not want to have a discussion – he concluded.
