Comment on Redstone’s “Democracy and the problem of certainty”

Abstract Redstone (Democracy and the Problem of Certainty. Theory and Society, 2024) provides a welcomed discussion of our general psychological propensity to become overly sure of our convictions and to thereby avoid critical thinking about them. Her analysis helps us to better understand the sources of this cognitive bias and its impact on sociology which has become overly ideological. This cognitive bias is also inconsistent with Merton’s norms of science. Excessive ideological commitments and related cognitive bias are impeding the development of cumulative sociological knowledge.