I think youâve misunderstood me. My complaint is not that these philosophers openly argue, âEAs are insufficiently Left, so be suspicious of them.â (Thatâs not what they say.) Rather, they presuppose Leftismâs obviousness in a different way. They seem unaware that market liberals sincerely disagree with them about whatâs likely to have good results.
This leads them to engage in fallacious reasoning, like âEAs must be methodologically biased against systemic change, because why else would they not support anti-capitalist revolution?â I have literally never seen any proponent of the institutional critique acknowledge that some of us genuinely believe, for reasons, that anti-capitalist revolution is a bad idea. There is zero grappling with the possibility of disagreement about which âsystemic changesâ are good or bad. Itâs really bizarre. And I should stress that Iâm not criticizing their politics here. Iâm criticizing their reasoning. Their âevidenceâ of methodological bias is that we donât embrace their politics. Thatâs terrible reasoning!
I donât think Iâm methodologically biased against systemic change, and nothing Iâve read in these critiques gives me any reason to reconsider that judgment. Itâs weird to present as an âobjectionâ something that gives oneâs target no reason to reconsider their view. Thatâs not how philosophy normally works!
Now, you could develop some sort of argument about which claims are or are not âextraordinaryâ, and whether the historical success of capitalism relative to anti-capitalism really makes no difference to what we should treat as âthe default starting point.â Those could be interesting arguments (if you anticipated and addressed the obvious objections)! Iâm skeptical that theyâd succeed, but Iâd appreciate the intellectual engagement, and the possibility of learning something from it. Existing proponents of the institutional critique have not done any of that work (from what Iâve read to date). And theyâre philosophersâitâs their job to make reasoned arguments that engage with the perspectives of those they disagree with.
I think youâve misunderstood me. My complaint is not that these philosophers openly argue, âEAs are insufficiently Left, so be suspicious of them.â (Thatâs not what they say.) Rather, they presuppose Leftismâs obviousness in a different way. They seem unaware that market liberals sincerely disagree with them about whatâs likely to have good results.
This leads them to engage in fallacious reasoning, like âEAs must be methodologically biased against systemic change, because why else would they not support anti-capitalist revolution?â I have literally never seen any proponent of the institutional critique acknowledge that some of us genuinely believe, for reasons, that anti-capitalist revolution is a bad idea. There is zero grappling with the possibility of disagreement about which âsystemic changesâ are good or bad. Itâs really bizarre. And I should stress that Iâm not criticizing their politics here. Iâm criticizing their reasoning. Their âevidenceâ of methodological bias is that we donât embrace their politics. Thatâs terrible reasoning!
I donât think Iâm methodologically biased against systemic change, and nothing Iâve read in these critiques gives me any reason to reconsider that judgment. Itâs weird to present as an âobjectionâ something that gives oneâs target no reason to reconsider their view. Thatâs not how philosophy normally works!
Now, you could develop some sort of argument about which claims are or are not âextraordinaryâ, and whether the historical success of capitalism relative to anti-capitalism really makes no difference to what we should treat as âthe default starting point.â Those could be interesting arguments (if you anticipated and addressed the obvious objections)! Iâm skeptical that theyâd succeed, but Iâd appreciate the intellectual engagement, and the possibility of learning something from it. Existing proponents of the institutional critique have not done any of that work (from what Iâve read to date). And theyâre philosophersâitâs their job to make reasoned arguments that engage with the perspectives of those they disagree with.