I wouldn't argue with what you say about the limitations of reason and
the need to recognize this. I tend to see this as more of a problem in
the sciences than in the humanities, though.
When Enron screws up, billions of dollars are lost and the economy is
hurt, thousands of people lose their retirement money (necessary for
survival), US businesses in general look bad, the stock market takes a
dive....the consequences are serious, far reaching, and affect many
many people.
How can you compare the effects of this to the effects of "irrelevant"
academics? How are you going to monitor what they say -- because that's
all they do, say things. We want them to be able to say whatever they
want. If it's stupid sometimes...well, all people everywhere are stupid
sometimes.
When an intellectual screws up, other intellectuals point it out. Our
think tank people do actually influence gov't policy a great deal, but
not nearly as much is at stake in the work of an individual academic as
is in the work of any individual company.
Jim
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Received on Wed Apr 30 16:13:19 2003
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