The Jim Rutt Show

The Jim Rutt Show


EP32 Jason Brennan on Irrational Democracy & Academia

December 30, 2019

Author & Professor Jason Brennan talks with Jim about teaching business school, libertarianism, poor incentives/outcomes in democracy & academia, and much more...

Author & Research Professor Jason Brennan talks with Jim about teaching in business school after studying philosophy, what a bleeding heart libertarian is, the ignorance & irrationality of voters, how well group identity predicts personal values, whether political engagement leads to rational politics, political discrimination, social signaling, epistocracy & other alternatives to democracy, what course evaluations actually measure in academia, grading inconsistencies & their unintended outcomes, college advertising & tuition costs, the moral grandstanding of tenure, and much more.

Episode Transcript

Mentions & Recommendations

Jason’s book, Against Democracy
Jason’s book, Cracks in the Ivory Tower
Jason’s posts on the Bleeding Heart Libertarians Blog
Adam Smith’s, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Jim’s Letter.wiki with Max Borders, On Libertarianism & Anarchism
Northwestern study, Nonvoters in America 2012
Christopher Achen’s book, Democracy for Realists

Jason Brennan is Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He is also Research Professor at the University of Arizona’s Freedom Center and Department of Political Economy and Moral Science. He specializes in politics, philosophy, and economics. Jason is the author of 10 books, including Cracks in the Ivory Tower, with Phil Magness; When All Else Fails: The Ethics of Resistance to State Injustice; and Against Democracy.