Openness — the ability to ask questions and the willingness to be questioned — is necessary for innovation. The principle also undergirds the success of a free, liberally democratic society of self-governing citizens.
Which is why, as Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) President and CEO Emily Chamlee-Wright and Charles Koch Foundation Executive Director Ryan Stowers write in a new Forbes column, it is worrisome so many scholars are afraid to challenge ideas —even on their home campuses. IHS counters this fear by providing space and support for intellectually talented people of good will to apply the principles of political, economic, intellectual, and civic freedom to the complex challenges the world faces.
Chamlee-Wright and Stowers conclude:
“[O]ur efforts and the efforts of anyone working in academe must advance a true republic of science in which the best ideas meet, correct, and improve one another. It’s under such conditions that better ideas achieve ‘escape velocity’ and get to where they are needed most urgently in the broader world.”
Read the Forbes column. Read Chamlee-Wright’s essay for CKF, “Liberalism: The Mother of Innovation” and read more from Stowers about how openness is a key ingredient for human progress.