FINAL ESSAY SLIDE

What is a dangerous idea? It is not something that put people in harms way, it is a thought that challenges the way that people think.By "dangerous ideas" I don't have in mind harmful technologies, like those behind weapons of mass destruction, or evil ideologies, like those of racist, fascist, or other fanatical cults. I have in mind statements of fact or policy that are defended with evidence and argument by serious scientists and philosophers but which are felt to challenge the collective decency of an age.Writers who have raised ideas like these have been vilified, censored, fired, threatened, and in some cases physically assaulted.