Institutional Neutrality and the Truth
I have noted in recent days that several American colleges have declared themselves “institutionally neutral,” meaning that they will no longer, as institutions, take positions on contested social and political questions. They rightly note that such declarations put the chill on freedom of thought, inquiry, and speech. They also, though from what I have seen they do it rather timidly, reaffirm that the university is supposed to be a place where people seek knowledge. That quest implies that there is such a thing as knowledge to be sought. Truth exists.
We do not want to produce sophists. Our students are alive with the desire to see what is actually there to see.
There are a few madmen and madwomen who will go so far as to deny that the results of scientific investigation and experiment help us to discover truths about the world. But there are far more such mad people outside…
