Open Letter Concerning Academic Freedom

[9toenails]

This is an anti-(anti-Kathleen Stock) letter:
Academic Freedom letter

It is reassuring that it is both more literate in its expression and more authoritative in its signatories than the abusive effort to which it is a response.

An Extract:
Much academic research, including philosophy, engages with difficult and controversial subjects, and it is critical that this work be brought to bear on matters of real, imminent public concern. Sex-specific intimate spaces, athletics, medical services, and prisons have long been the norm in our societies and are represented in the very infrastructure in which we conduct our daily lives. Significant changes to these practices and norms are the kinds of things that our professional scholars must be able to discuss, without constant threat of public vilification.

It cannot become our standard that where analysis and discussion of matters of public concern may cause offense, the social and institutional consequences of engagement are so costly that few will be willing to do the work. It cannot become our standard that the mere allegation of harm caused by some writing or speech, in the absence of any specific evidence to that effect, is sufficient to trigger such consequences. And it cannot become our standard that the mere fact that someone who causes harm agrees with something said or written by an academic is sufficient to saddle that academic with responsibility for that harm.

The Open Letter Concerning Transphobia in Philosophy is the latest depressing example of an increasing inclination in the Academy to adopt precisely these kinds of standards. The effect can only be to discourage those whom we employ to research, think, write, and speak about these issues from doing so and to deprive students of a diverse and intellectually rigorous education. This will neither benefit our laws, regulations, and public policies nor improve the education that students receive.

That's good to see. Thanks for posting.

That is good to see, and it reads very well.

Wow, that’s quite a list of signatories! 😯

That’s a good letter.

I find it concerning that nobody from the University of Sussex seems to have signed.

Wow, that’s quite a list of signatories!

It is!

OMG, Peter Singer.

Brilliantly put 👏👏👏. Cordelia Fine ❤️

Brilliant!

Great letter, and agree, OP that it is far more logical and more eloquent than the mish-mash of weak gibberish it responds to.

Superficial observation, but the academics that signed the first "transphobia" letter were apparently four young men gaining a foothold in academia. (Or rather three as one, curiously, did not show up on google.) Between them they had receive some impressive grants from rich but woke institutions.

In the best spirit of MN research, using a sample of four, I am wondering if there is danger of a generational capture of academia and academic thought. Are, say, GC young people who believe in maintaining academic freedom and in honest debate, gaining the same footholds on the path to careers as academics?

Can this be reversed?

@Needmoresleep

Superficial observation, but the academics that signed the first "transphobia" letter were apparently four young men gaining a foothold in academia. (Or rather three as one, curiously, did not show up on google.) Between them they had receive some impressive grants from rich but woke institutions.

In the best spirit of MN research, using a sample of four, I am wondering if there is danger of a generational capture of academia and academic thought. Are, say, GC young people who believe in maintaining academic freedom and in honest debate, gaining the same footholds on the path to careers as academics?

Can this be reversed?

I am incredibly pleased to see this letter, it echoes my thoughts on academic freedom and no doubt, the thoughts of most of FWR. Like Needmoresleep (your user name=my life) I have worried that this is a generational thing and will permeate a whole generation of academics.

On a more positive note I know of several younger academics/people completing their PhDs who disagree vehemently with the shutting down of debate and teens who think it is all nonsense. So I am still holding out some hope that the academy will make it through this because if it doesn't it will become defunct in arts, sociological and political areas since those areas become useless if the issues affecting society cannot be vigorously debated.

Sorry, my post was not clear. My sample four were from the University I went to. I am thinking of writing to Director, asking for confirmation that there is commitment to academic freedom.

My student DD claims to be tired of having to continually watching her speech. It is so easy to be misunderstood or misinterpreted. And not just gender. Intersectionality has all sorts of people guarding their patch and liable to be offended. General respect and equality would be so much easier.

What an excellent letter and how pleasing to see so many senior philosophers world wide signing it.

Small but pleasing number of US academics on that list.

And still open for signatures. I hope academics feel able to sign it.

Buoyed by thinking of the letter in support of JKR, which I was, to be perfectly honest, a bit worried about putting my name to, to begin with. But did so, and ... twenty thousand names later, I'm very proud to have done so.

@Needmoresleep

Sorry, my post was not clear. My sample four were from the University I went to. I am thinking of writing to Director, asking for confirmation that there is commitment to academic freedom.

My student DD claims to be tired of having to continually watching her speech. It is so easy to be misunderstood or misinterpreted. And not just gender. Intersectionality has all sorts of people guarding their patch and liable to be offended. General respect and equality would be so much easier.

Gender aside, lots of people in minority positions “guard their patch” to counteract racism, sexism and ableism

It might be wise for your DD to consider why she’s being misinterpreted or misunderstood if it’s happening so often she’s tired of it. The problem may not be them, it may be her. Just a thought.

Back on the top of gender and free speech, it’s a great letter and one I’m pleased to see.

Clare, I think you are wrong. There is a lot to take into account and most young people try very hard, but at times the circle cannot be squared.

For example group working during lockdown, and the need to set project group times to suit everyone has been very tough. As with TWs and single sex spaces, you can try to suit everyone, but you can't. So who do you prioritise? The Muslim girl who does not want morning sessions as she got up in the early hours to eat and then needs to go back to sleep or the Asian boy who got stuck at home in a different time zone, and does not want to have afternoon sessions as it is in the middle of the night for him.

And, as suggested in your post, you get it wrong and you get called out for racism. It is tricky. People are very quick to call names, whether racism, transphobia or whatever, and most young people don't want to get it wrong. It is not unreasonable surely to hate the sense of walking on eggshells.

Another example was trying to arrange an end of term Christmas meal. A vegetarian restaurant was not suitable as it served alcohol and would therefore exclude Muslims. Yet vegetarians then asked why their discomfort around people eating meat could not be taken on board, and others asked why they were not allowed to celebrate their festival in a traditional way. Again, who would you call racist? (Sadly I think because of complaints they gave up the idea of a group event. As my post suggested, this idea of intersectionality may be having the opposite of the intended effect and moving society away from tolerance and mutual respect into a competition for whose rights count most. )

Needmoresleep

Both those scenarios are about practicalities and have fairly easy solutions. Your points here make me uncomfortable as they play into an accusation often thrown at people who are gender-critical: that they are also anti of political correctness, egalitarianism and liberal views.

I don't understand. Surely identity politics are the opposite of egalitarianism, as they give some groups more rights (TW being one example) than others (vulnerable women who need single sex spaces being another.)

You may feel uncomfortable but not all of it makes sense to young people, however much they try, and they do try, to make sense of it.,

Another example. A proper working class Derry girl being told by a very affluent privately educated student that she had no understanding of prejudice as she benefitted from "white privilege". Her retort was apparently very funny and totally unPC.

I also question what you mean by liberal views. If you mean the sort of liberals who do not hesitate to lecture to others and tell them what they should be thinking, then perhaps "liberal" is not a good thing. If you mean holding left of centre views, but being prepared to listen to others, and perhaps even concede that some people, though coming from a different place, may be right on some things, then fine.

Isn't that is what this thread is about? Almost everyone who signed the Transphobia letter would claim to be liberal. And probably thing this is a good reason to disagree with Prof Stock, and indeed a good reason to silence her.

So glad to see Cordelia Fine sign this. Of course she knows the difference between sex and gender.

@Needmoresleep

I don't understand. Surely identity politics are the opposite of egalitarianism, as they give some groups more rights (TW being one example) than others (vulnerable women who need single sex spaces being another.)

You may feel uncomfortable but not all of it makes sense to young people, however much they try, and they do try, to make sense of it.,

Another example. A proper working class Derry girl being told by a very affluent privately educated student that she had no understanding of prejudice as she benefitted from "white privilege". Her retort was apparently very funny and totally unPC.

I also question what you mean by liberal views. If you mean the sort of liberals who do not hesitate to lecture to others and tell them what they should be thinking, then perhaps "liberal" is not a good thing. If you mean holding left of centre views, but being prepared to listen to others, and perhaps even concede that some people, though coming from a different place, may be right on some things, then fine.

Isn't that is what this thread is about? Almost everyone who signed the Transphobia letter would claim to be liberal. And probably thing this is a good reason to disagree with Prof Stock, and indeed a good reason to silence her.

I don’t understand what your point is and I’m not keen on digging for risk of finding some inherent racism. At the very least, it seems you’re using the issue discussed here to also get a jab in at people who, in your and your DD’s opinion, have unjustly or tediously played the racism card. I’m not sure you or your DD are in a position to judge that.

I find it surprising you believe young people like your DD find the situations you described difficult to navigate. They’re young people in 2021- those situations are their wheelhouse. Muslim people who don’t drink and practice their religion have always found their dietary/drinking needs conflicting with others’. Presumably your DD would prefer it if they did what they did in the past and put up or shut up?

As for the new example you gave - I’m not sure what your point is. So some people don’t understand privilege and intersectionality, what of it? You don’t say whether the affluent student accusing the “proper working class” girl of white privilege is white themselves and that’s pertinent to know in order to unpick this.

It cannot become our standard that where analysis and discussion of matters of public concern may cause offense, the social and institutional consequences of engagement are so costly that few will be willing to do the work. It cannot become our standard that the mere allegation of harm caused by some writing or speech, in the absence of any specific evidence to that effect, is sufficient to trigger such consequences. And it cannot become our standard that the mere fact that someone who causes harm agrees with something said or written by an academic is sufficient to saddle that academic with responsibility for that harm.

The Open Letter Concerning Transphobia in Philosophy is the latest depressing example of an increasing inclination in the Academy to adopt precisely these kinds of standards. The effect can only be to discourage those whom we employ to research, think, write, and speak about these issues from doing so and to deprive students of a diverse and intellectually rigorous education. This will neither benefit our laws, regulations, and public policies nor improve the education that students receive.

This is a well expressed letter and very pleased to see it gaining signatories.
Also I particularly agree with this point specifically: And it cannot become our standard that the mere fact that someone who causes harm agrees with something said or written by an academic is sufficient to saddle that academic with responsibility for that harm.

(This obviously goes for the pro-genderism academics too.)

I'm not a philosopher but it's really good to see so many philosophers signing this. It must have been unpleasant & lonely for the few who have been trying to write about sex & gender for the last 3 years or more. I know they got private messages of support even from senior people in the discipline but finally we are seeing lots of significant names in public, supporting their right to write about this.

In the anti-stock letter there was a paragraph supporting academic freedom, & saying they are not trying to stop stock speaking about this, & accepting that the debate can happen. It was rather unconvincing, but two years ago similar protestations about those nasty gender criticals weren't even paying lip service to that idea. And the only reason the conversation is beginning to happen within philosophy (though not within feminist philosophy yet) is because stock and others have forced it. The tanker just begins to turn.

Punches the air!

That's a hell of an impressive list of signatories, and I'm pleased to see quite a few names of people I know personally (and at least a couple who were enormously supportive of me as an early career academic).