哈佛大学、耶鲁大学和普林斯顿大学的15位教授和1位讲师联名给大学生写了一份建议书，劝勉大学生要独立思考。字字珠玑，句句箴言，深入浅出，引人入胜，再不学习就晚了！
致大学生建议书
作为普林斯顿大学、哈佛大学和耶鲁大学的学者和教师，我们有些想法和建议要分享给踏上大学征程的学子们。我们的建议可以浓缩为一句话——独立思考（Think for yourself）。
如今，独立思考听似颇为简单，但正如你们在高中就发觉的那样，独立思考对个人而言是一种挑战。独立思考要求自律且需要极大的勇气。
在当今的社会氛围中，个人的观点和见解很容易被学校或学术界广泛认可的主导观点所动摇。今天任何学生或教职人员都面临着同质化并屈服于大众思潮的危险。
许多高校都存在约翰·斯图尔特·米尔（J. S.Mill）所谓的“舆论暴政”现象，它们阻止学生反对和质疑在道德、政治和其他类型问题上的普遍性观点。这也就引导学生下意识地假定主流观点的正确无疑，只有那些顽固执拗或思想偏执的人才会去质疑它们。
既然没有人想成为顽固或思想偏执之人，那最简单直接的方式就是认同学校中的正统观点。
不要随波逐流，请独立思考。
独立思考意味着对主流思想的质疑，即便是他人坚持认为不容置疑的观点和思想。这意味着决定一个人信念的不是对大众观点盲从，而是不惧困难，在学习和全面考虑问题之后提出凌驾于问题各个角度之上的强有力的论据，包括那些诽谤、污蔑并反对他人立场，并以此保证自己观点免受批判核实的立场的论据。
对真理的热爱和实现真理的渴望应成为激励自己独立思考的动力。大学教育的核心是寻求真理、学习技能、获得必要的美德并成为一个终身的求真者。开放思想、批判性思维和辩论对于发现真相至关重要。而且，这些是我们根除盲从与偏执的良方。
韦伯字典对“bigot”一词的首要定义是“固执或偏执地固守自己的观点和成见”的人。真正的独断家是“唯一惧怕开放性调查和强有力辩论的人”，包括在学校或更广泛的社会中通过宣称质疑本身就是偏执行为来维护自身意见霸权的人。
所以不要被公众意见所压制。不要囿于主流思想的枷锁。无论你最终反对或认同这一观点，请确保在批判性地评判相互矛盾的立场之后再来决定自己的立场。
独立思考吧！
祝大家好运！
2017年8月29日
Paul Bloom
Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology
Yale University
Elizabeth Bogan
Senior Lecturer in Economics
Princeton University
Nicholas Christakis
Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science
Yale University
Carlos Eire
T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies
Yale University
Maria E. Garlock
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Co-Director of the Program in Architecture and Engineering
Princeton University
David Gelernter
Professor of Computer Science
Yale University
Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions
Princeton University
Mary Ann Glendon
Learned Hand Professor of Law
Harvard University
William Happer
Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Emeritus
Princeton University
Robert Hollander
Professor of European Literature and French and Italian, Emeritus
Princeton University
Joshua Katz
Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics
Princeton University
Thomas P. Kelly
Professor of Philosophy
Princeton University
Sergiu Klainerman
Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics
Princeton University
Jon Levenson
Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies
Harvard University
John B. Londregan
Professor of Politics and International Affairs
Princeton University
Uwe Reinhardt
James Madison Professor of Political Economy and Public Affairs
Princeton University
Michael A. Reynolds
Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Princeton University
Jacqueline C. Rivers
Lecturer in Sociology and African and African-American Studies
Harvard University
Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe
James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Princeton University
Harvey S. Rosen
John L. Weinberg Professor of Economics and Business Policy
Princeton University
Marta Tienda
Maurice P. During Professor in Demographic Studies and Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School; and Director, Program of Latino Studies
Princeton University
Noël Valis
Professor of Spanish
Yale University
Tyler VanderWeele
Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Director of the Program on Integrative Knowledge and Human Flourishing
Harvard University
Adrian Vermeule
Ralph S. Tyler, Jr. Professor of Constitutional Law
Harvard University
Keith E. Whittington
William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics
Princeton University
Some Thoughts and Advice for OurStudents and All Students
August 29, 2017
We are scholars and teachers at Princeton, Harvard, and Yale who have somethoughts to share and advice to offer students who are headed off to collegesaround the country. Our advice can be distilled to three words:
Thinkfor yourself.
Now, that might sound easy. But you will find—as you may have discoveredalready in high school—that thinking for yourself can be a challenge. It alwaysdemands self-discipline and these days can require courage.
In today’s climate, it’s all-too-easy to allow your views and outlook to beshaped by dominant opinion on your campus or in the broader academic culture.The danger any student—or faculty member—faces today is falling into the viceof conformism, yielding to groupthink.
At many colleges and universities what John Stuart Mill called “the tyrannyof public opinion” does more than merely discourage students from dissentingfrom prevailing views on moral, political, and other types of questions. Itleads them to suppose that dominant views are so obviously correct that only abigot or a crank could question them.
Since no one wants to be, or be thought of as, a bigot or a crank, theeasy, lazy way to proceed is simply by falling into line with campusorthodoxies.
Don’tdo that. Think for yourself.
Thinking for yourself means questioning dominant ideas even when othersinsist on their being treated as unquestionable. It means deciding what onebelieves not by conforming to fashionable opinions, but by taking the troubleto learn and honestly consider the strongest arguments to be advanced on bothor all sides of questions—including arguments for positions that others revileand want to stigmatize and against positions others seek to immunize from criticalscrutiny.
The love of truth and the desire to attain it should motivate you to thinkfor yourself. The central point of a college education is to seek truth and tolearn the skills and acquire the virtues necessary to be a lifelongtruth-seeker. Open-mindedness, critical thinking, and debate are essential todiscovering the truth. Moreover, they are our best antidotes to bigotry.
Merriam-Webster’s first definition of the word “bigot” is a person “who isobstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.”The only people who need fear open-minded inquiry and robust debate are theactual bigots, including those on campuses or in the broader society who seekto protect the hegemony of their opinions by claiming that to question thoseopinions is itself bigotry.
So don’t be tyrannized by public opinion. Don’t get trapped in an echochamber. Whether you in the end reject or embrace a view, make sure you decidewhere you stand by critically assessing the arguments for the competingpositions.
Think for yourself.
Good luck to you in college!
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