Show Notes

Frank Lechner is a professor of sociology at Emory University. He did his undergraduate work in sociology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and then moved to the U.S. for his PhD. He’s the author of four books and two edited volumes—his most recent book is The American Exception, a book about American exceptionalism that covers several aspects of American life including religion, law, sports, and media. I invited him to the show in part to have a dialogue about a piece I published about asymmetric polarization. We also discussed a first-year seminar on conservatism that Frank taught in 2016. To my knowledge, that’s the first seminar of its kind at Emory.

Selected Quote

I appreciate your comment about my “nonpartisan” teaching because in my day to day life, I try to depoliticize the work that I do. I don’t put my own views forward in a very strong manner. I prefer to create a space in which students can analyze arguments and evidence as honestly and as seriously as possible and to provide them with the tools and if necessary play the Devil’s advocate for whatever side needs my support and my articulation. And I think in my actual teaching I don’t take a strong political posture.

More generally, I occasionally I speak up on political issues, issues on campus so people are aware I have perhaps a slightly deviant point of view, a point of view that deviates from the orthodoxy that reigns on most college campuses. But at the same time, I don’t fight any Quixotic battles against the dominant culture.

Transcript

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Chris Martin: I’m Chris Martin and this is Half Hour of Heterodoxy. This show is produced by Heterodox Academy. You can find out more about us at heterodoxacademy.org. You can also find us on Facebook under Heterodox Academy and on Twitter @hdxacademy.

 

My guest today is Frank Lechner. Frank is a professor of sociology at Emory University, which is where I recently finished my PhD. I took a theory course with Frank during my second year and I was very impressed with his mastery of classical, sociological theories. And Frank is known more broadly within the sociology community for his work on globalization. He’s the author of four books and two edited volumes. His most recent book is The American Exception. It’s a book about American exceptionalism that covers several aspects of American life including politics, religion, law, sports and the media.

 

I invited Frank to the show in part to have a dialogue about a piece I published about asymmetric polarization in America. We also discussed the first year seminar on conservatism that Frank taught in 2016. To my knowledge that’s the first seminar of its kind at Emory.

 

The essay about asymmetric polarization that we discuss is one that I published in late 2016. Frank disagreed with many points in the essay, which is why I invited him to the show. The essay is entitled To My Undergraduate Class on the 2016 Election. I was teaching a class on the sociology of happiness at the time and I wrote this essay to expand on what I said to my class. I published this essay on Medium and Lee Jussim published a copy of it on his blog so you may have read it on one of those places. If you haven’t read it, you can find it online by searching for “To My Undergraduate Class on the 2016 Election.”

 

Now, the essay doesn’t exactly represent what I said to my class. What I actually said to my class was quite brief. I wrote this essay afterwards and then sent it to my class to read if they wanted to. And the essay primarily makes two points that I made in class. The first is about ideology quite broadly. The first point is that Liberals, Libertarians and Conservatives appear to have different moral foundations and this is one reason they misunderstand one another. I drew on Jonathan Haidt’s research here and I included a link i...