ת: A Useful Audience: Aristotle, Augustine, and so forth. When I take a position either different from 90% of university professors, or the same as 90% of them, perhaps I should look to a different audience as a check. The liberal intelligentsia may think I'm taking a position that is crazy or one that is obviously correct. But what audience should I really care about? An easy suggestion is to ask "What would Jesus do?", but for many purposes that's not useful; Omniscience is too high a standard for me to be able to answer the question.

God is too high a standard for this purpose. How about an imaginary oversight committee of intelligent people with diverse points of view? Say--- Aristotle, Han Fei, St. Augustine, David Hume, and Winston Churchill? That keeps the committee small, and I've read enough of these people to have some idea what they'd think. It's usually different from what modern intellectuals think, but where my oversight committee lines up on one side and the intellectuals on the other, how could I possibly prefer the intellectuals to the committee? If you are wondering why I hold opinions that are in the minority in 2003 Bloomington, realize that I find it less unsettling being in a minority in this provincial place and time than to be in a minority compared to people of all times and places. If I disagree with my oversight committee, I'd better be able to come up with a good reason. If I disagree with my fellow intellectuals, it is probably just their idiosyncratic, though uniform, mistake.

Please do not think I am saying that I am the equal of this oversight committee. Far from it! Rather, I have picked people I admire but who have rather different views. Your picks might be different, but I recommend that you pick as highly and diversely as you can.

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