OUR VALUES
Our Statement of Values
The Arbour Foundation is committed to financing and backing deserving students who possess a series of praise-worthy intellectual and moral qualities, whilst also giving consideration to difficulties which may have been overcome by applicants.
The Arbour Foundation is committed to defending the Enlightenment values and principles exemplified by the sharing of knowledge, the elevation of reason, the promotion of science and humanism.
We believe that the principles underpinning the Enlightenment are axiomatic and are pillars for quality education, transcending both time and borders. The Arbour Foundation encourages universities to defend these principles.
The Arbour Foundation also encourages students in their discovery of the Enlightenment principles underpinning the Enlightenment by carefully considering and reflecting on the Foundation’s statement of values.
The Age of the Enlightenment is a movement born in Europe during the 18th Century. This literary and cultural movement sought to promote the sharing of knowledge and reason to combat irrationality, ignorance and superstition. The term “Enlightenment” brings together the diverse set of actions and currents emanating from this movement.
The principles underpinning the Enlightenment were developed by intellectuals such as Descartes, Locke, Newton, Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau and Adam Smith, whose collective works converged upon the notion that science and intellectual discourse are tools which can be employed to resist religious intolerance and political absolutism.
The legacy of the Enlightenment includes the furtherance of individual and collective rights, the sharing and dissemination of knowledge, and ultimately humanism.
In the parlance of the Arbour Foundation, the term “Enlightenment” refers to the consistent application of open discourse, science and reason to tackle the problems that beset humanity, leading to progress.
Value 1: Diversity of opinion / Freedom of speech and expression
The Arbour Foundation:
● Believes that every individual should have the right to express his or her opinions and is justified in standing up to those who attempt to suppress debate. A corollary to freedom of speech is the right of people to hear the ideas of others, in order to be able to form nuanced opinions based on hearing multiple and divergent arguments;
● encourages people to actively engage in good-faith discussion, civil debate, and conversation to foster understanding and to flesh out areas of knowledge which require further elaboration and debate;
● promotes scientifically minded dialogue which aims to rank-order competing claims based on the strength of objective analysis;
● considers that all domains of knowledge and scientific enquiry lead to a better understanding of the human condition and complex phenomena; • endorses the adoption of the Chicago Principles. According to these principles, no debate should be suppressed on the basis that ideas are “disagreeable, offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed”; and
● considers that all domains of knowledge and scientific enquiry lead to a better understanding of the human condition and complex phenomena; • endorses the adoption of the Chicago Principles. According to these principles, no debate should be suppressed on the basis that ideas are “disagreeable, offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed”; and
● believes that people should be respectful of others’ choices so long as such choices do not impede on the personal choices or the liberty of others.
Value 2: A commitment to rational thought
The Arbour Foundation:
? encourage la pensée logique, séculière et objective et son application systématique de manière impartiale et de?sinte?resse?e dans le but de discerner les faits de l?idéologie, puisque cette dernière entrave presque toujours la quête de vérité;
? soutient que la raison et les connaissances basées sur un classement ordonné scientifique de revendications concurrentes doivent prévaloir sur les idéologies et que les connaissances ne devraient jamais être supprimées. Il est indispensable d?affiner les idéaux pour être davantage en adéquation avec les faits, incluant les fondements de la nature humaine et les aspects pratiques de la vie courante;
? défend la méthode scientifique et propose l?adoption d?une approche bayésienne pour incorporer de nouvelles informations afin d?affiner les formulations, les idées et d?améliorer les théories, ainsi que pour identifier et éliminer les idées fausses, toujours dans le but d?accroitre le corpus des connaissances. Il convient d?être agnostiques vis-a?-vis des résultats, qu?ils soient conformes aux attentes ou non;
? soutient que tous les domaines d?étude pouvant être évalués de manière scientifique devraient être prêts et déterminés a? soumettre leurs prémisses et leurs revendications a? la vérification empirique.
Value 3: A judicious application of knowledge
The Arbour Foundation:
● encourages individuals to use discovered truths and facts wisely, and apply themselves to solving problems with the objective of improving the human condition as well as the world we live in;
● encourages individuals to recognise that changes in the status quo inevitably lead to trade-offs. The scientifically-minded approach is to identify and quantify such trade-offs and carefully consider the law of unintended consequences; and
● encourages critical thinking to avoid policies and plans which may appear well-intentioned, but which are not backed by the latest scientific findings and body of literature.
Value 4: Individual responsibility, meritocracy, and equality of opportunity
The Arbour Foundation:
● judges the individual on merit, without regard to characteristics such as ethnicity, gender or religion;
● believes that each individual should assume personal responsibility and must act based on freewill. We hold that intent is demonstrated through action;
● believes that concerted efforts must be made to remove obstacles that stand in the way of the principles of free choice and equal opportunity; and
● believes that the pursuit of equality of outcome is incompatible with the principles of equality of opportunity and meritocracy.
Enlightenment principles toolkits (as supported by the Arbour Foundation)
Citation & review of literature
Must be employed to demonstrate mastery of the extant literature. One cannot make a sensible conjecture without first understanding the relevant literature. Owing to the replicability principle, meta studies are preferred.
Propositions and hypotheses
Are the basic formulation to confront unexplored territory and novel problems and to ascertain the truth. Hypotheses must be subjected to the scientific method of empirical testing for validation or rejection.
Empirical testing
Quantitative analysis is favoured where possible or applicable, complemented by qualitative analysis applied to interpret the results and relationship to base theory. Qualitative analysis may also be complemented by qualitative analysis when researching new and emergent fields. Research results must be robust and reproducible. Care must be taken not to confuse correlation with causality. Finally, the rank ordering of competing claims is both possible and necessary, and such ranking is established based on the strength of evidence for individual claims and replicability of results. Results should be replicable based on sound scientific and the most up-to-date research methods.
Rational analysis
Thorough cost/benefit analysis applied when changing the status quo. Care is taken to ensure that new ideas that are implemented do not make matters worse.
Continuous improvement of the body of knowledge and retractation of error
New studies should employ the most up-to-date science and data that can be obtained. Admit and retract errors in your work and improve your work by building on errors or weaknesses. Test results for robustness and black swan risk. Re-test theories when new evidence or data emerges. Care must be taken so as to ensure that the conclusions drawn should not overreach the results and limitations of methods applied. Encourage others to test your work and highlight further research questions that the research community should seek to investigate based on the limitations of your study.
History as your guide
A fundamental human nature provides constancy of human behaviours across time. The corollary of a fundamental human nature is that it is necessary to understand history and never assume that a past situation may never recur. Opponents of radical reform are showing wise distrust of human hubris. Progress is self-cloaking and only truly understood in retrospect. A situation should be measured against the objectivity of the deprivation of the past and not some idealised future. The law of entropy predicts that things may start to fall apart when we have not paid sufficient attention.