SYMPOSIUM: ENLIGHTENMENT NOW
David Randall
Did the Enlightenment Exist? Jonathan Clark’s Provocation—and Its Problems
Paul Rahe, Hillsdale College
A provocative new book denies that the Enlightenment ever existed, noting that eighteenth century thinkers did not use the term as a unified label. But Paul Rahe is unconvinced, arguing instead that the Enlightenment was in fact a broad intellectual project promoting scientific inquiry, technological progress, and the gradual displacement of religious authority in public life. And it all began with Francis Bacon.
The Lesser-Known Case for the Liberal Society
Yuval Levin, American Enterprise Institute
In responding to Enlightenment radicalism, conservatives developed a tradition that defended liberty while grounding it in the classical and Christian heritage of the West. Yuval Levin argues that preserving this synthesis is essential to sustaining the achievements of liberalism.
Jefferson, Adams, and the Limits of Enlightenment Progress
Richard Samuelson, Hillsdale College
In America, Enlightenment ideas sparked disagreement, especially between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Jefferson believed in human progress and thought democracy could elevate a “natural aristocracy” and improve society through science. Adams was more skeptical, arguing that flaws in human nature required institutional checks and balances rather than faith in voters or inevitable progress.
A Better Way to Understand Humans and Their Diversity
Elizabeth Weiss, San José State University, (emerita)
Enlightenment thinkers established anthropology as a scientific discipline by separating supernatural belief from empirical inquiry, and by studying both living people and human remains. Today, Elizabeth Weiss argues, too many anthropologists are abandoning these principles in favor of “decolonizing” approaches that treat indigenous spiritual beliefs and the supernatural as scientific truths.
Humanitarian Extremism: How the ‘Shadow Enlightenment’ Consumed the Enlightenment
Eric Kaufmann, University of Buckingham
The Enlightenment advanced individual liberty and reason, encouraging practical efforts to improve the human condition. But Eric Kaufmann argues that a “Shadow Enlightenment” emphasizing egalitarianism and humanitarianism also emerged at the same time. While it fostered many human improvements, it eventually grew beyond its limits, evolving into identity politics and illiberal activism associated with “wokeness.”
The End of the Secular Enlightenment
Nathan Pinkoski, Center for Renewing America
Nathan Pinkoski contends that the Enlightenment of the American Founding did not exclude religion from public life, but instead grounded natural law in both reason and divine authority. He warns that those “year-zero” liberals who seek to remove Christianity from public life risk undermining the moral foundations of Western civilization.
Enlightenment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Madeleine Armstrong, University of Florida
Eighteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant defined Enlightenment as humanity’s maturation: the courage to use one’s own reason rather than depend on authority. Today, the rise of AI threatens this project by allowing humans to outsource thought, risking intellectual immaturity and dependence. It is up to the universities, Madeleine Armstrong argues, to mandate discipline and cultivate the critical faculties necessary to preserve freedom.
ARTICLES
The Library Apocalypse Is Coming
Karl D. Stephan, Texas State University
University libraries are rapidly shifting from physical collections to digital holdings, with many books moved off-site or discarded. While this transition reduces costs and improves convenience, it also threatens the traditional role of libraries as spaces for encountering preserved knowledge and cultivating intellectual discipline.
Diversity for Some, Not for All: Viewpoint Exclusion in Social Work
Arnoldo Cantú
The current ideological orthodoxy in social work education heavily influences clinical social work and mental health practice, limiting effective care. To restore credibility, social work education should eliminate political litmus tests, embrace pluralism, and ensure training prepares practitioners to work with individuals from all walks of life.
The New Denialism: When Ideology Silences Genetics
Alexander Riley, Bucknell University
Rina Bliss and like-minded scholars claim race is purely a social construct and that studying human genetic differences is inherently racist. Yet scientists Luigi Cavalli-Sforza and David Reich show that careful genetic analysis reveals real population-level differences. Sociologist Alexander Riley argues that ideological pressures in academia are thus suppressing valid science and limiting our understanding of human nature.
How Religious Doctrine Disappeared from Terrorism Research
William Gawthrop
Strategic security expert William Gawthrop argues that scholars increasingly avoid examining religious doctrine in studies of political violence, not because it is irrelevant but because of ideological pressure within academia. Gawthrop contends that this self-censorship creates a serious gap between scholarly explanations and the empirical realities observed in courts and criminal investigations.
How Social Work Education Lost—and Can Recover—Intellectual Freedom
Nathan Gallo
Social work professional Nathan Gallo maintains that schools of social work sanctimoniously defend “academic freedom” against outside pressure, but they simultaneously mandate adherence to anti-racism, anti-oppression, diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks across accredited programs. Gallo concludes that social work education must restore intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity so students can engage usefully with the full range of circumstances they will encounter in professional practice.
Educating Our Accusers: Scholarships, Prestige, and the Self-Subversion of Western Elites
George F.A.W. St. Claire, University of Oxford
Western universities treat international scholarship programs as a form of soft power intended to cultivate goodwill toward liberal societies. While most international students fit this model, a small but influential minority use the prestige of Western institutions as a platform to morally delegitimize Western civilization. Oxford University doctoral candidate George St. Claire argues Western universities should feel no obligation to continue this practice.
Wight Martindale Jr.
Students today—especially boys—spend far less time reading than previous generations. Reading for its own sake—curiosity, enjoyment, and intellectual growth—is disappearing as career pressures move earlier into life. Wight Martindale Jr. suggests a number of short, engaging books as accessible starting points to help young readers rediscover the pleasure and value of reading.
American Exceptionalism and the Strange Afterlife of Socialism
Edward S. Shapiro, Seton Hall University
Historians have long debated whether the United States is an exceptional nation and whether the failure of socialism to gain a strong foothold in America reflects that exceptionalism. Historian Edward Shapiro asks whether recent developments—such as the election of declared socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City—require us to revisit that question.
Hate: What Is It Good For? Adam Smith’s Perspective
Adam Dixon, Heriot-Watt University; Daniel Klein, George Mason University
A podcast interview that took place at Padmure House, an institute owned by Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University, finds economists Daniel Klein and Adam Dixon discussing the philosophical meaning of hate and the rise of modern hate-speech and hate-crime laws, informed by Adam Smith’s theorizing on the subject.
REVIEW ESSAY
Reason, Science, and the Return of the Divine
Daniel Asia, University of Arizona (ret.)
Two recent books argue for the existence of God and the non-material nature of the human mind. Anthony Flew, once a prominent atheist, details in There Is a God how philosophical reasoning and scientific evidence led him to conclude that an intelligent Creator exists. Dr. Michael Egnor, in The Immortal Mind, presents clinical evidence from neurosurgery and near-death experiences that suggest human consciousness cannot be fully explained by the material existence of the brain.
SHORT TAKE
On Excising Plato from the Academy
Gene Fendt, University of Nebraska
Texas A&M recently made headlines for reportedly “kicking Plato out” of a philosophy course after an AI review flagged excerpts from Symposium as violating a new rule against “gender ideology.” Gene Fendt explains that the passages in question were taken out of context and selectively interpreted to support contemporary views on gender and sexuality. Ultimately, Fendt argues, Plato isn’t being expelled; he’s being mistaught.
On Whose Dime? The Question of Political Representation in the Academy
Walter E. Block, Loyola University
Harvard University fails the “Sodom and Gomorrah” test of ideological diversity, economist Walter E. Block maintains, with only a tiny fraction of its faculty identifying as conservative or libertarian. This is despite taxpayer funding amounting to roughly 10 percent of its budget. Donald Trump’s policies toward Harvard, writes Block, aim not to control the university, but to ensure that publicly funded institutions reflect the ideological diversity of the citizenry.
FOR THE RECORD
Elizabeth Weiss, San José State University (emerita)
Indigenous activists worldwide are increasingly controlling anthropological research, dictating questions and methods, and even whether results can be published. If science is to remain the pursuit of knowledge rather than a vehicle for political agendas, researchers must insist on methodological and publication independence.
REVIEWS
The Spring AQ features seven book reviews, starting with Roger Pielke Jr. on Michael Mann’s and Peter Hotez’s Science Under Siege, a book that Pielke says exemplifies the politicization of science it claims to oppose. Political scientist—and NAS Public Affairs Director—Glenn Ricketts takes on teacher union president Randi Weingarten’s Why Fascists Fear Teachers, which Ricketts claims is not a serious reflection on declining K-12 outcomes. NAS science director J. Scott Turner takes a turn with James T. Costa’s Radical by Nature, which describes the unjust, Victorian-era marginalization of natural selection co-discoverer Alfred Russel Wallace. Academic Questions Managing Editor Seth Forman reviews Laura Field’s Furious Minds, which indicts MAGA “New Right” intellectuals while ignoring the political and institutional crises that helped give their ideas influence.
Historian Edward S. Shapiro discussesWall Street Journal columnist Jason L. Riley’s The Affirmative Action Myth, which argues that affirmative action and social welfare policies have hindered black upward mobility. Riley urges a return to “color-blind” policies. Anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss reviews John Staddon’s Inevitable Differences: An Inquiry into Human Variation, which argues, controversially, that racial disparities are primarily explained by endogenous factors—individual abilities and traits—rather than systemic racism. Lastly, Richard P. Phelps reviews Defying Low Expectations by William A. Dembski and Alex Thomas, which celebrates the renowned teacher Jaime Escalante and his relentless, high-expectation approach that helped disadvantaged students master calculus, famously depicted in the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver.
Photo by Prescott Horn on Unsplash