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Jonathan Haidt

by James A. Bacon

Jonathan Haidt is one of the most important public intellectuals in America today. If you’re not familiar with his work, you need to be. You’ll get a chance to hear him when he comes to the University of Virginia February 8 as a guest of The Jefferson Council.

The social psychologist (and former UVA professor) gained national attention in 2012 with the publication of his book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, which asks the question, why can’t we all get along? In America, liberals and conservatives hew to different sides of six fundamental moral realms such as Fairness/Cheating and Liberty/Oppression, he argues. Differing moral sentiments translate into different worldviews, which inform different political positions. Moral intuitions are the primary driver, and reason follows mainly as a means to justify those intuitions. Though an old-fashioned liberal who has confessed to having never voted for a Republican for president, Haidt eschewed demonizing those who think differently. Liberals and conservatives alike, he said, are prone to group thinking, rationalizing their intuitions, and confirmation bias (seeking data that confirms their worldviews while ignoring data that doesn’t). 

Jonathan Haidt
February 8, 2024, 6:30 p.m.
Nau Hall Auditorium
Register here

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The Jefferson Council invites you to hear George Will on April 25th at the University of Virginia. The topic of his address could not be more timely: “The Bad Ideas Fueling Today’s Attack on The Best Idea — Free Speech.”

Will began writing national syndicated columns in 1976, making him one of the longest-running pundits of our time. He’s also one of the best, winning the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977. Age has not in the least dimmed his way with words or the incisiveness of his critiques.

The assault on free speech has been a top-of-mind issue for the conservative columnist recently. Consider a recent column he wrote about campus radicals at Stanford who shut down the speech of federal Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan.

The noun “parent” has become a verb as many people embrace the belief that perfectibility can be approximated if parents are sufficiently diligent about child-rearing. So, “helicopter parents” hover over their offspring to spare them abrasive encounters with the world. And “participation trophies” are given to everyone on the soccer team, lest the excellence of a few dent others’ self-esteem — the fuel that supposedly propels upward social mobility.
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Praxis Circle is a community building worldviews to renew free society. We do this primarily through our online content and interviews of expert thought leaders on worldview topics. Today, we are thrilled to welcome as our newest Contributor a very familiar person to all regular Bacon’s Rebellion readers—founder, editor, and publisher James A. Bacon himself!

What to say about Jim? At his core, he is a dedicated Virginian. Jim graduated from the University of Virginia, obtained a masters at John Hopkins University, and promptly began his journalism career in southwest Virginia. He eventually settled in Richmond as editor of Virginia Business magazine where he became the editor-in-chief as well as its publisher.

After feeling bureaucratically stifled while witnessing the internet’s revolutionary explosion of news & opinion, Jim started Bacon’s Rebellion in 2002 as an email newsletter. It has since developed into a highly regarded online news portal and is consumed by thousands of Virginians as their primary source for state and local news as well as balanced editorial opinion.

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