2008 Boston Conference on Political Ignorance and Dogmatism

On August 31, 2008, at the conclusion of the American Political Science Association convention in Boston, the Critical Review Foundation held its first-ever scholarly conference, at which Professors of Political Science John Bullock (seminar of 1999), Samuel DeCanio (1998), Tom Hoffman (1995), Michael Murakami (2001), Mark Pennington (1996), Ilya Somin (1997), and Nick Weller (2003) explored the implications of public ignorance with Profs. Scott Althaus (Political Science, U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), David Barash (Psychology, U. of Washington), Bryan Caplan (Economics, George Mason U.), Arthur Lupia (Political Science, U. of Michigan), George E. Marcus (Political Science, Williams Coll.), David R. Mayhew (Political Science, Yale), Russell Muirhead (Political Science, U. of Texas, Austin), Paul J. Quirk (Political Science, U. of British Columbia), Charles S. Taber (Political Science, Stony Brook U.), and Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author of The Black Swan). This was the first time all the CR seminar "alumni" who have become political scientists were brought together in one place to discuss their ideas with eminent scholars in political science and other fields, and according to the unanimous consensus of the participants, it was one of the few scholarly events they had attended where real dialogue, learning, and new thinking occurred.

 

Introductory Remarks

 

 

"Public Ignorance: Rational, Irrational, or Inevitable" - Scott Althaus, Bryan Caplan, Ilya Somin, Nassim Taleb, and Jeffrey Friedman

 

 

"Ignorance and Error" - Scott Althaus, John Bullock, Arthur Lupia, and Paul Quirk.

 

 

"Public Ignorance, Empirical Realities" - Sam DeCanio, David Mayhew, Mike Murakami, and Nick Weller.

 

 

"Ignorance and Dogmatism" - David Barash, George Marcus, Charles Taber, and Jeffrey Friedman.

 

 

"Normative Implications" - Tom Hoffman, Russell Muirhead, Mark Pennington, Ilya Somin, and Jeffrey Friedman.

 

 

Concluding Remarks