Randolph M. Nesse "used to believe that truth had a special home
at universities." Mr. Nesse, professor of psychiatry at the University
of Michigan and an expert on evolution and medicine, now thinks
"universities may be the best show in town for truth pursuers, but most
of them stifle innovation and constructive engagement of real
controversies -- not just sometimes but most of the time,
systematically." Faculty committees, he complains, make sure that most
positions "go to people just about like themselves." Deans ask how much
external financing new hires will bring in. "No one with new ideas ...
can hope to get through this fine sieve."
--Josh Fischman, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus (15 December 2008) about a new anthology, What Have You Changed Your Mind About? in which 150 "big thinkers" discuss things they once believed.
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