ABSTRACT
One problem with some versions of social justice is that they draw too heavily from critical theory. As we’ve seen, this means activists end up treating a contested approach as if it’s settled science, but another problem with critical theory is that some versions of it are more like a political ideology than a scientific theory. We should draw from sociology in our social justice pursuits, but we need to make sure we don’t treat ideology as science. We don’t have to just accept or reject ideological claims uncritically, though. We can evaluate them using the tools of science, and then we can avoid making public policy based on those aspects of critical theory that don’t hold up.
