Reviving the Spirit of Inquiry

Last month, I had the honor of delivering the keynote address at the MIT Free Speech Alliance’s first conference. I received my doctorate in economics from MIT back in the 1970s. At the time, it was probably the best economics department on the planet. An atmosphere of unfettered inquiry was key to MIT economics’ success in those days, just as it is key to the survival and thriving of any ambitious intellectual enterprise. There were no questions you couldn’t ask, and the legitimacy of your answers to those questions depended solely on their ability to withstand the scrutiny of your teachers and peers.

That is as it should be. But as we’ve seen, the spirit of free inquiry is now too often hampered by the censorious impulses of campus culture warriors in the student body, faculty, and administration. The search for knowledge about the world cannot proceed under that condition. When the people pursuing new ways of understanding the world must constantly worry that their legitimate research will uncover information that will get them canceled, the big questions don’t get asked. 

This state of affairs cannot continue, and most people know it, even if they won’t say so. As I say in my address, our job is to call ‘em like we see ‘em. I encourage you to listen to that address, but I wanted to bring particular attention to the Q&A session that followed the speech. I think it’s a particularly rich example of the kind of exchanges that are possible when no one is looking over their shoulder and worrying that their good faith questions will land them in hot water. I think it’s still possible for the academy to move back toward that ideal, but we’re going to need more folks like the Free Speech Alliance to get it going.