We are in a complex, challenging moment. There is much about this moment that lends itself to easy outrage, with no shortage of voices reflecting this sentiment in the public debate. In this context, it is worth asking: What is our job in this moment? How can we be a constructive influence in the midst of challenge and complexity?
In trying to meet the challenge of this moment, I would like to suggest we can learn from the principles and practices that have long sustained academia, where engaging with complex, competing ideas has historically been central to its mission of knowledge generation, teaching, and practice. We can perhaps do so by bearing in mind three central characteristics of academic communities.
First, academic communities are environments that were created to advance thinking that sharpens and clarifies ideas, that sheds light not heat. The academy is a place for following a process of reasoned inquiry and open debate wherever it may lead, even when it leads in uncomfortable directions. It is a place for testing what we think is true, being open always to the possibility that we may be wrong, and understanding that the path to truth is one of reflection, humility, and doubt. It is precisely when we are most certain of something that we should be most interested in testing our certainty against what the data, and our peers, are saying.
It is no accident that peer review is at the heart of the academic enterprise. The reason academic research is broadly trusted is because it is understood to be “stress-tested” by the review process, which opens research up to the constructive criticism that catches mistakes, strengthens arguments, and refines and elevates good ideas. We formulate ideas and then subject them to scrutiny—in the form of conversation, debate, and the publication process—that helps us develop the quality of our thoughts and ideas so that our thinking can then make a practical difference in the world. In a time when ideas are often amplified before they are “fully baked,” academia is a place for thinking that embraces nuance, complexity, and a process that helps ensure that the ideas we elevate truly reflect the best thinking of which we are capable.
Second, academia is a space for pursuing reasoned conversation and debate not just for the ends they produce—better ideas, sharper thinking—but for their own sake. The free exchange of ideas is the essential exercise that supports intellectual health in individuals and communities. There is always value in the exchange of different points of view, even when these points of view reflect areas of disagreement. Indeed, disagreement—provided it is respectful and civil—should be central to the life of the mind we seek to cultivate in academic communities. When we find we are all in agreement, when we never encounter views that challenge us or complicate our preferred narratives, it is on us to seek out and engage with these differing views if we are to maintain the integrity of our enterprise.
Third, academia provides a physical space where scholars representing many different backgrounds, experiences, and points of view can gather to interact on a daily basis, exchanging ideas, sharing work-in-progress, and contributing to the surrounding community. In this digital era, such spaces are perhaps more valuable than ever. They help keep what we do rooted in community, in our interactions with fellow human beings—the starting point for most, perhaps all, meaningful work. As a community of people and ideas, we not only work to build a better world, we work to build a microcosm of that world on our campuses—in our classrooms, in our student housing and dining spaces, on our greens, and in our administrative halls.
This is not to say that academic institutions are some kind of throwback to a predigital era. On the contrary, academic communities—in addition to being where many key technological developments were conceived and created—have a responsibility to engage with emerging technology, leveraging tools like AI and digital learning toward broadening the horizons of what is possible, both at schools and universities and in the wider world. But we can only do so by holding fast to what is essential about all we do—namely, coming together to work and learn side by side, and fostering the values that sustain an inclusive, healthy intellectual community.
I have long appreciated Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If—.” Kipling was, of course, a problematic figure with many objectionable views, and it is important to bear this always in mind when engaging with his work. But great words are great words, and Kipling wrote some remarkable ones when, in “If—,” he said, “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs…Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”
Fundamentally, now is a moment for us to do all we can to keep our heads. Amidst noise and outrage, amidst legitimate causes for fear and concern, we can make a difference by adhering to the principles that have made academia great and which have done much to support good ideas in a range of contexts and historical circumstances.
A version of this post also appears on Substack.