Tag: academic freedom

Issues in the Philosophy Profession

Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)

November 9, 2026

“We are frankly stunned to find a focus… on intemperate social media posts, papers that didn’t after all get retracted, and books being published…
Academic Freedom

University of Cape Town vs. Free Speech

November 6, 2026

Mark Oppenheimer, a lawyer in South Africa whom readers may know as the co-host of the popular Brain in a Vat philosophy podcast, is…
technology

Humanist Gets Religious Exemption from Using AI at Work

October 30, 2026

A research administrator at the University of Kentucky objected on religious grounds to the pressure the university was putting on him and other employees…
philosophy

The Vanderbilt Report’s Sub-Report on Philosophy

October 27, 2026

“Academic philosophy is generally healthy in most respects relevant to the work of the Commission.”
Academic Freedom

Faculty Sues University over Plato-Banning Policy

August 5, 2026

Texas A&M is being sued by a group of professors and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas over a policy that led to,…
Academic Freedom

“I’m much less concerned about how people react to me”

June 29, 2026

That was part of Rebecca Tuvel’s answer to a question from journalist Evan Goldstein about “the benefits of almost getting canceled.”
Academia

Subordinating the Humanities’ Scholarly Enterprise to Political Goals (updated; comments now open)

June 15, 2026

[Originally published on June 8th, 2026, 9:02am. Reposted by request.] “In our view there are several worrying tendencies in contemporary academic scholarship in the…
News

Authoritarianism & Philosophy: After Orbán’s Ouster, an Effort to Reopen the Lukács Archive

June 15, 2026

“Philosophers were the first targets of Orbán’s ‘culture war.’”
Academic Freedom

Russia’s Political Persecution of a Philosopher: Further Details (guest post)

May 29, 2026

Earlier this week, it was reported that Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats was placed under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other…
Academic Freedom

Russian Government Investigating Institute of Philosophy

May 25, 2026

Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats is under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the…
Academic Freedom

Judge Orders Texas State to Reinstate Robinson

May 11, 2026

A federal court judge ruled today that Texas State University must reinstate philosopher Idris Robinson, whom the university fired from his assistant professorship over…
Academic Freedom

Free Speech Fine Against Sussex Following Philosopher’s Resignation Overturned

April 29, 2026

About a year ago, the UK government’s Office for Students (OfS) (whose “free speech czar” is philosopher Arif Ahmed) levied a fine of £585,000 on…
Academic Freedom

Letter Supporting Fired Texas State Philosophy Professor and Boycott of University

April 23, 2026

Last month it was reported that Idris Robinson, a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy at Texas State University, is suing several university officials for…
Faculty Moves

Peterson from Texas A&M to SMU

April 9, 2026

Martin Peterson, currently professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, will be moving to Southern Methodist University (SMU).
News

Top University in Iran Bombed

April 6, 2026

Early this morning, Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s leading technical university, was bombed.
Academic Freedom

Texas State Fires Philosophy Professor Over Off-Campus Talk on the Israeli-Palestine Conflict

March 25, 2026

Idris Robinson, a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy at Texas State University, is suing several university officials for violating his constitutional rights after they…
Academic Freedom

Florida Implements Stronger Thought Policing

February 20, 2026

With measures borrowed from history’s totalitarian regimes, political leaders in Florida are taking unprecedented steps to indoctrinate students and prevent them from learning about…
Academic Freedom

Activism and the Pursuit of Knowledge

February 18, 2026

The pursuit of knowledge generates disagreement, including disagreement about how to pursue knowledge.
Academic Freedom

APA Joins Other Organizations in Calling for Texas A&M to Rescind Censorship Policies

February 12, 2026

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has signed onto to a letter by PEN America to the Texas A&M University System Regents “to request that…
Academic Freedom

Tenure to Be Eliminated at Many Public Colleges in Oklahoma

February 6, 2026

It appears that no new tenure-track hires will be made at public regional universities and community colleges in Oklahoma.

Latest Comments

Rob on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Yes, for instance, section 7 of the "Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues" SEP entry twice cites the Hasenbush et al 2019 study whose "fatal flaws" have recently been…
Jessie Ewesmont on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Yes, relitigating the Tuvel affair for the 500th time in the last decade seems like a great way to figure out the state of academic philosophy today.
Moti Gorin on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
"Yet none of these [external threats] are threats that concern Fine and Rosen (though they mention some briefly in passing)." The Vanderbilt/WashU report was explicitly aimed at "examin[ing]…
Oliver Traldi on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Here is what Bettcher wrote elsewhere about the Tuvel affair: "The most notable controversy, however, concerned Hypatia itself and, in particular, the publication of an essay about transgender…
Meme on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Arguably, they *are* experts in everything, but it is not the case that for each thing, they are experts in that thing.
Marc Champagne on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Real or imagined… I was writing about this lopsidedness ten years ago: https://philpapers.org/archive/CHAPBS.pdf
William Lewis on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
There are a bunch of published responses to tuvel’s paper and many others that cite it positively and negatively. Of course, we never know those papers that were…
Margaret Atherton on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
It seemed odd to me that Fine and Rosen spent so much time talking about the Tuval affair, a single incident not representative of any body of knowledge…
RebecaPL on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Bettcher and Saul are right in contesting the view that, within the philosophy of sex and gender, "an orthodoxy reigns according to which “trans women are women and…
Philosoraptor on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
I echo what others, such as bob jones and Erik, have said about the treatment of Tuvel. I find the way that the authors talk about the treatment…
UK philosopher on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Sadly I find this poorly argued and somewhat self-undermining. For one, note how the authors characterise gender-critical philosophy: they characterise work here first as “aggressively anti-trans” , and…
Marc Champagne on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Thermometer reading: the fewer posts include real names, the greater the chilling effect.
Hermias on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Please, let me die
Colin Macleod on David Lyons (1935-2026)
David was my doctoral supervisor at Cornell, I TA'd for him, and I occasionally played squash with him. I no longer play squash but his influence on me…
Kenny Easwaran on Building AI That Can Do Philosophy Better Than Us (guest post)
For some questions people would be interested in, yes, a better comparison would be a field of both human-written and AI-written submissions, evaluated anonymously. But even that wouldn't…