speech
TagEncouraging Participation in the Classroom
“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” an advertising slogan for Las Vegas tourism, has been adopted by a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College as a motto for one of his courses, as a way of creating a “safe space” for students who might be worried about their comments in class getting taken out of context, or showing up on social media. (more…)..
Sunlight
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” the saying goes. It also causes sunburns. (more…)
“An Optimistic Bet”
The relationship between truth and social progress is then an optimistic bet. I hope that knowing the truth is part of what sets us free. But that’s an empirical hunch that could well turn out to be wrong. (more…)
DePaul Students Ask University to Censure Philosophy Professor for Writings on Palestinians
Jason D. Hill, professor of philosophy at DePaul University, recently wrote an article for The Federalist about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has prompted students at his university to launch a petition calling for his censure. (more…)
Richard Marshall Resigns from 3:AM Magazine (Updated)
Richard Marshall, who has conducted astonishingly rich interviews with hundreds of philosophers for 3:AM Magazine, has resigned from the publication over its editor’s decision to remove one of his interviews from public view.
Epistemology and Free Speech
“When we have good reason to think that the position advocated by a potential speaker is wrong, we have an epistemic reason in favour of no-platforming: we can be confident that providing her with a platform will produce evidence in favour of her views that it is very difficult to rebut (and which can’t be rebutted by argument).” (more…)
Nussbaum Uses Berggruen Winnings to Fund Discussions on Challenging Issues
Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy and Law at the University of Chicago, is using some of her Berggruen Prize winnings to fund a series of roundtable discussions at her school on controversial and challenging issues. (more…)
Where the Open Exchange of Ideas is Most Protected and Valued
” commonly held, and wrong, belief is that colleges and universities suppress speech as a matter of course. In fact, the higher education sector is where the open exchange of ideas is more protected and valued than most other sectors in society.” (more…)
How Academia Handles Objectionable Ideas: The Case of Jongen at the Hannah Arendt Center
Earlier this month, the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College hosted a conference, “Crises of Democracy: Thinking in Dark Times,” on the various questions posed by the current “worldwide rebellion against liberal democracy.” Among those invited to speak at the conference was Marc Jongen, who has a PhD in philosophy and is known as the “par..
Is There A Defense of Shouting Down A Speaker At A University?
Last week, Charles Murray, a social scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, was scheduled to give a lecture at Middlebury College, at the invitation of a student group. Before he began speaking, though, many students and faculty in the audience stood up, turned away from the stage, and “shouted and chanted for such a long period that Murray couldn’t speak.” ..
“American Society for the Protection of Philosophers” Proposed
In a comment in the ongoing discussion regarding the reaction to George Yancy’s “Dear White America,” University of Oregon professor of philosophy Naomi Zack puts forward the idea of an “American Society for the Protection of Philosophers.” She volunteers herself for it and asks interested others to contact her:
The American Philosophical Association should expre..
Nussbaum on Stalkers, the Internet, the Law, and Medication
“Like a surprisingly large proportion of Americans, I have a cyberstalker.” So begins Martha Nussbaum’s lengthy and wide-ranging review, in The Nation, of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace by Danielle Keats Citron. Nussbaum (Chicago) goes on to describe her stalker, his stalking and her reactions to it, delving into the culture of the internet (including the effects of anon..