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Articles by Mark Horowitz Ph.D
Which Belief Would You Find Unbearable to Revise?
When we hear the concept of “sacred belief,” we naturally think of religion. Yet moral psychology shows that everyday beliefs can be sacred as well. A belief becomes sacred when a person refuses to question it due to deep emotional investment and a strong sense of personal and group identity built around it. The psychological machinery behind sacred beliefs is motivated reasoning.
Which Belief Would You Find Unbearable to Revise?
Sacred beliefs aren’t just religious; everyday beliefs become sacred when we refuse to question them. Motivated reasoning keeps us holding beliefs by filtering out contrary evidence. Our favored theories are tied to identity, so challenging them can feel like a personal threat. Test a cherished belief: Ask what evidence would change your mind and if an idea is wrong or just threatening. When we hear the concept of “sacred belief,” we naturally think of religion.
Students Are Citizens, Not Just Consumers
Source: ChatGPT AI image/Free use In 1780, while serving as a diplomat in Paris, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail: "I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematics and Philosophy." Adams then imagined his sons studying commerce and agriculture so that future generations could pursue painting, poetry, music, and the liberal arts. The premise seems quaint today. Yet Adams captured something essential: Education can serve purposes beyond earning a living.
Students Are Citizens, Not Just Consumers
Why Education Is Important Find a Child Therapist John Adams hoped future generations would have more freedom to study the arts and humanities. The liberal arts and humanities were never a luxury—they form the habits of mind democracy needs. Today, AI and related pressures push colleges toward workforce alignment at the expense of civic formation.
Why Universities Keep Lowering Their Standards
Why Education Is Important Find a Child Therapist Declining university standards are less about bloated administrators or lazy faculty than bad incentives. Enrollment and funding pressures push universities to lower admissions and grading standards. Faculty rationally inflate grades and reduce work due to student evaluations and career incentives. Realigning incentives, not moral appeals or denunciations, is needed to restore academic rigor. Higher education has seen better days.
Why Universities Keep Lowering Their Standards
Source: Gemini AI image/Free Use Higher education has seen better days. The recent high-profile case of plagiarism and dishonesty by former Cambridge professor Jason Arday has become a flashpoint in a broader debate over whether universities still maintain the academic excellence they claim to value. Many on the political right argue that the left-wing ideology that elevated Arday is eroding traditional standards.
Canaries in the Marketplace and What It Means to Be Human
If we view the market strictly through the lens of individual freedom, it is difficult to make a case against fast food or modern sexual culture. Neither was imposed on an unwilling public. Both succeeded because they responded to genuine human desires, and competition made satisfying those desires easier, cheaper, and more profitable than ever before. Yet no one set out to create an obesity and metabolic disease crisis.
Canaries in the Marketplace and What It Means to Be Human
Markets satisfy our appetites, but they also reshape them. Freedom of choice does not answer whether our desires are worth cultivating. Cultural norms can shift gradually until what once seemed troubling feels normal. Sandel's warning: Mastery over nature may change how we see our children and each other. If we view the market strictly through the lens of individual freedom, it is difficult to make a case against fast food or modern sexual culture. Neither was imposed on an unwilling public.
Musk Gambles, Marx Nods: Economic Abundance Is Not Fulfillment
Aside from their belief in free trade, few convictions are more universally held among economists than the idea that there will always be ample jobs for all. The standard view holds that while new technologies inevitably produce short-term dislocations—creating winners and losers, punishing those slow to adapt—in the long run, heightened productivity fuels broader growth and prosperity.
Musk Gambles, Marx Nods: Economic Abundance Is Not Fulfillment
Elon Musk’s capitalist vision of absolute abundance ironically mirrors Karl Marx’s socialist dream. Endless material abundance raises knotty questions about wealth distribution and finite planetary limits. Humans require psychological friction to thrive; comfort without struggle may cause existential atrophy. Aside from their belief in free trade, few convictions are more universally held among economists than the idea that there will always be ample jobs for all.
Evolutionary Mismatch and Spiritual Degradation
Source: Gemini AI image/Free use One of the virtues of a post-tribal outlook is that nearly everyone becomes a potential conversation partner. Rather than seeking opportunities to tout or distinguish one’s own views, the impulse is to find common ground with others, whatever their political, religious, or ideological commitments.
Evolutionary Mismatch and Spiritual Degradation
Religious and atheist scholars agree: Modern life is mismatched with human nature. Smartphones and urban anonymity are driving anxiety, loneliness, and declining trust. Digital substitutes are weakening real relationships and intimacy across generations. Restoring community, sacredness, and attention are key to human flourishing. One of the virtues of a post-tribal outlook is that nearly everyone becomes a potential conversation partner.
Harvard’s Grade Inflation Fix
Source: AI-generated with Gemini / Google Harvard’s recent decision to cap the number of A grades in undergraduate courses is a welcome, albeit overdue, acknowledgment of a problem that has been festering for years: rampant grade inflation and the slow erosion of academic standards. As a professor with nearly 30 years of experience across four different institutions, I have watched this decline with growing concern. What was once exceptional has become commonplace.
Harvard’s Grade Inflation Fix - Mark horowitz ph.d
Why Education Is Important Find a Child Therapist Harvard’s decision to cap A grades signals an overdue reckoning with grade inflation and declining standards. Conservatives are right about falling standards; liberals are right about the need for a cultivated citizenry. One-sided thinking in the classroom undermines trust in higher ed and limits students’ intellectual growth.
Going Post-Tribal Is Lonely but Liberating
I waited with anticipation for the release of Ibram X. Kendi’s latest book, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age. As a prominent voice in anti-racist scholarship whose ideas have shaped important conversations, Kendi has had a significant influence on popular beliefs about racial inequality. In the weeks since its March release, I watched several of his interviews and public conversations.
Another Holiday Dinner, Another Political Meltdown?
My brother and I used to ruin more than a few holiday dinners. For decades, I identified with the progressive left and he the libertarian right. Arguments over Reaganomics, climate change, and the long-term viability of Social Security still echo in my ears—though today they prompt more nostalgia than aggravation. Source: Gemini AI image/Free Use What changed? On my part, two things: engagement with research in political psychology, and the power of introspection.
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