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Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought, Expanded Edition
Thou shalt not hurt others with words. That commandment looks harmless, even admirable. But it is neither. As Jonathan Rauch states in this groundbreaking book, "This moral principle is deadly - inherently deadly, not incidentally so - to intellectual freedom and to the productive and peaceful pursuit of knowledge." Americans are used to thinking of liberal society as standing on two pillars: the economic system of capitalism and the political system of democracy. But a third pillar of liberalism, although little heralded and often poorly understood, is just as important: the system for producing knowledge. "Liberal science, " as Rauch calls it, performs the crucial task of developing knowledge by choosing between conflicting views. In Kindly Inquisitors, Rauch explores how that system works and why it has now become the object of a more powerful ideological attack than at any time since the great battles between science and religion. Moving beyond the First Amendment, Kindly Inquisitors defends the morality, rather than the legality, of an intellectual regime that relies on unfettered and often hurtful criticism. After explaining the rules that make science work, Rauch identifies three major threats. The first and oldest is from fundamentalists - people who believe that truth is obvious and so need not be questioned. Newer and more troubling are the intellectual egalitarians, who hold that everyone's beliefs deserve equal respect. And most problematic of all are the humanitarians, who decry "verbal violence" and demand that no one give offense. Rauch traces the attacks on free thought from Plato's Republic to Iran's death decree against Salman Rushdie, and then to America's campuses and newsrooms. He provides an impassioned rebuttal to the moral claims of all who would regulate criticism on the grounds of compassion. Attempts to protect people's feelings, though appealing on the surface, lead to the control of knowledge by central authorities. "The new sensitiv
Book Details
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press
- Publish Date: Jan 23rd, 2014
- Pages: 216
- Language: English
- Edition: Enlarged - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.40in - 5.40in - 0.60in - 0.55lb
- EAN: 9780226145938
- Categories: • Civil Rights• Constitutional• Civil Rights
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About the Author
Rauch, Jonathan: - Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a contributing editor of the Atlantic and National Journal, and the author of six books, including Government's End and Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America.
More books by Jonathan Rauch
What people are saying
The Ezra Klein Show
2 years
"The best case for free speech that I’ve ever read. It’s a really fantastic book."
– Veronique de Rugy is an economist and columnist.
Praise for this book
Praise for the previous edition
"Fiercely argued. . . . What sets his study apart is his attempt to situate recent developments in a long-range historical perspective and to defend the system of free intellectual inquiry as a socially productive method of channeling prejudice."-- "Michiko Kakutani, New York Times"
"Like no other, this book restates the core of our freedom and demonstrates how great, and disregarded, the peril to that freedom has become."-- "Chicago Tribune"
"Stands out as a thoughtful, provocative defense of civil liberties and liberal inquiry. Jonathan Rauch's unique perspective, derived from personal experience, lends to the poignancy of his thesis."-- "William F. Weld, former governor of Massachusetts"
"To observe that American political and intellectual discourse has become polarized, intolerant of all but the most predictable ideological nostrums, censorial of anything deemed to be remotely 'politically incorrect, ' and generally lacking in subtlety, a free spirit of inquiry, or honest quest for truth, has perhaps become trite. Twenty years ago it was less so, and it was then that Rauch wrote a book called Kindly Inquisitors. In retrospect, Rauch was extraordinarily prophetic in his assessment of the evolving state of free speech and thought. [This] newly updated version of Kindly Inquisitors provides an opportune moment to reflect on this extraordinarily deep and provocative essay, a true tour de force of logic, integrity and moral passion."-- "Forbes" (11/8/2013 12:00:00 AM)
"It has been twenty years since the first edition of Kindly Inquisitors, yet conflicts persist. This book is worth a second look twenty years later. It will no doubt lead the reader to reflect upon the nature of social and political change within a technologically networked society."-- "ID: International Dialogue" (1/26/2015 12:00:00 AM)
"An eloquent attack on the advocates of political correctness."
-- "Economist""A modern classic explaining the importance of free speech in society."-- "Greg Lukianoff, Huffington Post" (11/8/2013 12:00:00 AM)
What people are saying
The Ezra Klein Show
2 years
"The best case for free speech that I’ve ever read. It’s a really fantastic book."
– Veronique de Rugy is an economist and columnist.