The Modern Independent

The Story Behind ‘Epistemic Closure’

Posted by Ryan Dawkins

I have been wanting to write about the ongoing debate raging in the blogosphere regarding the idea of epistemic closure and the intellectual health of not only the political right, but the left as well.  To my surprise, The New York Times actually outlined the basic contours of the debate pretty well yesterday. Rather than reinventing the wheel, here is what the Times had to say:

The phrase is being used as shorthand by some prominent conservatives for a kind of closed-mindedness in the movement, a development they see as debasing modern conservatism’s proud intellectual history. First used in this context by Julian Sanchez of the libertarian Cato Institute, the phrase “epistemic closure” has been ricocheting among conservative publications and blogs as a high-toned abbreviation for ideological intolerance and misinformation.