The Illusion of Consensus: An Interview with Professor Jeffrey Flier, M.D.
Interview with Jeffrey Flier, former dean of Harvard Medical School, the Higginson Professor of Medicine and Physiology at HMS, Co-President of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, Founding Member of the Academic Freedom Alliance, and board member of Heterodox Academy. Flier worked with HLS Professor Randall Kennedy to help draft a statement on mandatory diversity statements for the AFA that currently stands as the AFA’s official position.
Flier discusses some of his most pressing concerns around science and medicine, including Covid-19 research. ”If not resisted, I fear the excessive mixing of research and politics will become more prevalent, to the detriment of scientific progress and the integrity of the scientific community.”
He also speaks to well intentioned efforts in medicine regarding race and gender that may have negative consequences. “In an effort to stress the importance of racism in medicine, many professional societies and medical schools have adopted views about the centrality of race and how best to counter racism that – whatever their good intentions – may be intellectually flawed and beset by unintended adverse consequences.” Flier also expresses concerns over “promoting a single definitive approach to ‘gender affirmation’ and early therapeutics with medications and sometimes surgery.”
One of his greatest concerns is that “If physicians lose the habits of mind that enable critical and independent thinking in the face of dominant but contestable government or institutional policies, they will be ineffective stewards of critical professional values going forward.”
As for why he has become so involved in these issues? “The concept of academic freedom is so foundational to the modern academy in a liberal society that I still find it disorienting at times to feel the need to publicly defend it. But the threats are real and increasing, and the time for action is now.”
