The rejection of tradition and authority as reliable sources of knowledge in favor of observation and ratiocination is typically taken as a basic premise of modern scientific thought. It is closely associated with René Descartes (1596-1650), who sought to build up knowledge of the world on the premise of doubting even the fact of his own existence. But, drawing on the work of the historian of science Thomas Kuhn, M. Anthony Mills argues that such an inherently anti-religious stance is not a necessary precondition for science:

Kuhn’s [argument] is that students learn first by imitation and practice and—assuming they receive a good education—once they strike out on their own, they will have been successfully inculcated into a particular scientific tradition. They will thus be prepared to recognize, pose, and solve scientific problems.

If we take tradition to be antithetical to scientific rationality, Kuhn’s conclusions will appear disquieting. And, indeed, Kuhn’s critics rejected his arguments as “irrationalist.” But if, on the contrary, we take tradition to be essential to rationality, then Kuhn’s conclusions will be not only acceptable but also unsurprising. According to the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, before we can begin to reason at all, we must first acquire the habits necessary to recognize and, ultimately, to replicate rational behavior. To do so, there must first be exemplars that we take to be authoritative—in the moral domain these will be exceptionally virtuous people, in the scientific domain, exceptionally good scientists. To become rational, in other words, one must be educated within a tradition of inquiry.

Science, on this view, is not Cartesian—at least as far as [the rejection of received ideas] is concerned—even if it remains eminently rational.

Where does this leave us? . . . [T]he fact that religious beliefs are not entirely reducible to empirical experience and partly depend upon tradition doesn’t make them irrational or even anti-scientific. Thus a popular way of opposing science and religion starts to look untenable. This hardly means the two become indistinguishable. But it does suggest that science and religion could be conceived of as distinct—but possibly harmonious, even sometimes mutually beneficial—traditions of rational inquiry.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.