The Limited Times

Jonathan Rauch: "Why we must prefer pluralism to orthodoxy"

8/29/2021, 6:03:47 PM


INTERVIEW - Essayist Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brooking Institution (think-tank) and author of The Constitution of Knowledge. A Defense of Truth ("The constitution of knowledge. A defense of the truth"), pleads for a rehabilitation of the scientific method in the public debate.

LE FIGARO.

- What is this "constitution of knowledge" that you describe in your book?

To discover

  • Michel Houellebecq: "A civilization which legalizes euthanasia loses all rights to respect"

Jonathan RAUCH.

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Every company, large or small, needs a system for resolving disagreements over facts and opinions on matters of public interest.

Which God should we worship to bring rain?

What caused the plague that afflicts us?

Giving a public account of reality is hard work, but above all it is essential work, without which a society cannot make decisions or function collectively.

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For

Homo sapiens

, the typical method has been to rely on a certain variety of authorities: priests, sacred texts, oracles, dictators, politburo, etc.

But these are ineffective both in settling disputes peacefully and in identifying and correcting errors.

After centuries of conflict, philosophers and scientists began to build a radically different social model to achieve a common vision

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Freedom is also to go to the end of a debate.

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