Multiculturalism and Philosophy of Science

The multiculturalist movement, together with cultural relativism, goes too far in applying the idea of open-mindedness. It can be compared with the strange doctrine of Paul Feyerabend in the philosophy of science, who argued against the use of any method.

Now the scientific method ideally eliminates biases in scientific research based on tradition, authority figures, and so on. Ideally, it treats all theories with an open mind, and theories that fail an experimental test can be chucked out. It may seem like the next step in open-mindedness to treat all methods equally, but it isn’t. Treating all methods equally just means bringing back into use all the methods previously used that are now suspect (and they are suspect because they aren’t open-minded about theories): citing tradition, relying on authority figures, using crystal balls, and so on. Being open-minded about methods doesn’t get us any further in our quest for knowledge, and the Australian philosopher David Stove claims that Feyerabend was an afficionado of Carlos Castaneda (The Plato Cult, p. 11). See here on Castaneda.

Likewise, multiculturalism presumably began with the idea that some people were being judged on the color of their skin, but then gravitated beyond that to the idea that some people were being judged on their cultural background. It may seem like the next step in open-mindedness to try to avoid doing this, but it doesn’t work very well.

Just as being open-minded about method opens the door to all the old methods that hindered scientific progress, so being open-minded about cultures opens the door to a lot of old prejudices that we should be trying to stamp out. Lots of non-Western cultures are very reactionary, as I’ve been saying for years about traditional Muslim culture, and to treat it with respect simply means ignoring all the prejudices of that culture. For example, when I was in Cairo four years ago, I was told in an orientation session at my school that Egyptians acknowledged just three religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. They didn’t acknowledge atheism or agnosticism or, presumably, Hinduism or Buddhism and so on. Open-minded people of the past would have been appalled at this situation, but under the influence of multiculturalism, they think they are being open-minded when they have respect for this culture. (See here for an example of multiculturalists refusing to judge the Taliban.)

The sooner we see multiculturalism die, the better.

Comments

[Michael Valle]

Amen. The contradictions of multiculturalism are clear, yet it is the academics who are uniquely vulnerable to it.

[John Pepple]

Yes, and these are the people who pride themselves on being smart!