Au Contraire

Tyler Cowen has been preaching against various intellectual vices. My chairman Don Boudreaux thoughtfully adds the Contrarian Vice to the list:

Being contrarian is admirable because it keeps the mind open and exploring; it's of a piece with one of the finest of all intellectual dispositions: skepticism.

But even a disposition as admirable as contrarianism has its downside -- what I might call "the contrarian vice." The contrarian vice is to weigh cleverness too heavily against wisdom.

Not all contrarians commit the contrarian vice; Tyler doesn't.

This is overly charitable. Tyler defends Lady in the Water and argues that the Jedi themselves should not be trusted. And don't get me started on Pragmatism.

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