Rationalism, Social Justice, and Critical Theory

Centre for Inquiry Canada is strongly committed to supporting and promoting social justice. We have publicly stated our commitment to ending racism (https://centreforinquiry.ca/cfic-and-hc-statement-condemns-racism/), and recently hosted a discussion on Anti-Black Racism (For those who missed it or would like to see it again, the video is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0MD_ShU6cU ) Some have suggested that CFIC's stated commitment to social justice is incompatible with our commitment to rationalism, critical thinking, and scientific skepticism. On the contrary, we consider that working to build a just society is a critical component of our mission, vision, and values (https://centreforinquiry.ca/cfics-mission-vision-and-values/).

As part of CFIC's mandate to provide education to our members and the public, we have set up a dialogue between Helen Pluckrose and CFIC's President, Gus Lyn-Piluso. They will explore why Pluckrose is so vehemently against critical theory and the dominant social justice movements of the day and what postmodernism has to do with this. Why spend so much time and energy criticizing these ideas? Are they not simply word games confined to the ivory tower? Isn’t it better to keep our feet on the ground in the world of realpolitik? If you have suggestions for additional questions, please send them to president@centreforinquiry.ca. (There will also be an opportunity to submit questions during the event.)

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Gus Lyn-Piluso has been a professor for over 30 years, teaching students to think critically, rationally, and to engage the world as active ethical citizens. He has been interested in Deweyan pragmatism for years and sees ‘truth’ not as something received but arrived at through the communal process of free inquiry whereby ideas are tested and challenged in real-life situations. He currently teaches a trans-disciplinary big history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity, and the emergence of complexity using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods. He has a background in social justice education, critical pedagogy, and has been an activist working to reform the criminal justice system.

Helen Pluckrose is a liberal political and cultural writer and speaker. She is the editor of Areo Magazine and the author of many popular essays on postmodernism, critical theory, liberalism, secularism, and feminism. Her academic writing focuses on late medieval and early modern religious writing by and for women. During her studies, Helen became concerned about the impact of postmodernism and critical theory on academia, liberalism and social justice movements.