Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us

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A timely exploration of intellectual dogmatism in politics, economics, religion, and literatureand what can be done to fight it

Polarization may be pushing democracy to the breaking point. But few have explored the larger, interconnected forces that have set the stage for this crisis: namely, a rise in styles of thought, across a range of fields, that literary scholar Gary Saul Morson and economist Morton Schapiro call fundamentalist. In Minds Wide Shut, Morson and Schapiro examine how rigid adherence to ideological thinking has altered politics, economics, religion, and literature in ways that are mutually reinforcing and antithetical to the open-mindedness and readiness to compromise that animate democracy. In response, they propose alternatives that would again make serious dialogue possible.

Fundamentalist thinking, Morson and Schapiro argue, is not limited to any one camp. It flourishes across the political spectrum, giving rise to dueling monologues of shouting and abuse between those who are certain that they cant be wrong, that truth and justice are all on their side, and that there is nothing to learn from their opponents, who must be evil or deluded. But things dont have to be this way. Drawing on thinkers and writers from across the humanities and social sciences, Morson and Schapiro show how we might begin to return to meaningful dialogue through case-based reasoning, objective analyses, lessons drawn from literature, and more.

The result is a powerful invitation to leave behind simplification, rigidity, and extremismand to move toward a future of greater open-mindedness, moderation, and, perhaps, even wisdom.

Reviews

"A sweeping study of the rise of rigid certainty in politics, economics and literature, and the threat it presents to democracy, which requires open-mindedness and compromise."---Bill Clinton, The Guardian
"Morson and Schapiro are surely right to point out that in recent years we have seen new fundamentalisms generate solidarity through distrust, disinformation and angry resentment. Their book reminds us that we need to aspire to create communities open to learning, to conversation and to recognizing one's own errors. That's what we want, after all, from our campuses and from our democracy. --Michael Roth, Wall Street Journal"
"Their argument on the whole is compelling, and one can only hope society listens to it."---Nat Brown, National Review
"Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro are professors at Northwestern University in such disparate fields as Slavic languages and literatures and Economics. The book is a seamless fusion of their learning, observation, analysis, and wisdom. They are experienced collaborators and we are their beneficiaries. ... Defending politics and democracy is difficult although preferable to the alternatives. The same applies to other fields vulnerable to fundamentalism. Moderation is not easy, and thinking is strenuous. However, minds wide shut hurt more. ... Minds Wide Shut ... is solemnly and enthusiastically recommended."---Linda Quest, International Social Science Review
"Minds Wide Shut issues a devastating indictment of the ideological extremism so characteristic of fundamentalism." * Chronicles *

Author Bio

Gary Saul Morson is the Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities and professor of Slavic languages and literatures at Northwestern University. Morton Schapiro is the president of Northwestern University and a professor of economics. The authors of many books, Morson and Schapiro are also the coauthors of Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities (Princeton).