censorship
TagAPA Joins Other Organizations in Calling for Texas A&M to Rescind Censorship Policies
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 they rescind two policies, passed in fall 2025, that have resulted in the censorship of academic courses across the institution, and the announced closure of the University’s Women’s & Gender Studies Program.” (more…)..
Speech under Authoritarianism (updated)
Governments in the United States are ramping up their attacks on freedom of speech, with state and federal officials getting people—including professors—fired or investigated for expressing their opinions about public figures, and the president suggesting he will shut down media that is critical of him and his allies. (more…)
Philosophers’ Books among those Banned from US Naval Academy Library (updated)
In January, Donald Trump issued an executive order banning various books on race, gender, and other topics from public schools for kindergarten through grade 12. Last week Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the US Naval Academy that, though it is a college, the order applied to its library, too. (more…)
A Philosophy Journal That Won’t Accept Submissions from Iranian Citizens? (updated)
In a recent interview about Russia and Ukraine at Truthout, Noam Chomsky (MIT), discussing sanctions and the toleration dissident voices in public in the United States and elsewhere, notes an example of intolerance: (more…)
Illusion and Agreement in the Debate over Intolerance
A good number of very smart, interesting, and creative people signed onto an open letter, published in Harper’s this week, applauding “wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society” while lamenting “the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.” (more…)
Free Speech at Oxford (updated with an important correction)
Flying around social media yesterday were cheers that Oxford University had issued a “Statement on the Importance of Free Speech” in response to a motion from the Oxford Student Union allegedly to “ban ‘ableist, classist and misogynist’ reading lists”. (more…)
Media Reports on Campus Free Speech “Out of Kilter with Reality”
“The press accounts of widespread suppression of free speech are clearly out of kilter with reality,” says a new report on free speech at universities by the UK Parliament. “Any inhibition on lawful free speech is serious, and there have been such incursions, but we did not find the wholesale censorship of debate in universities which media coverage has suggested.” ..
Springer Agrees To China’s Demand To Censor Its Journals
Springer Nature, possibly the world’s largest academic publisher, has agreed to demands from the Chinese government to block access in China to more than a thousand articles, according to reports at Financial Times and The New York Times.
Censorship of Philosophy in Hong Kong
Politically-motivated censorship of philosophy in Hong Kong has “clearly become worse” over the past few years, says Wong Kwok-kui, a philosopher at Hong Kong Baptist University. (more…)
The Ideas Faculty are Too Scared To Defend: A Follow-Up
Last week I wrote about the Great Academic Absorption and asked about the ideas it left unabsorbed, or squeezed out. At the time, I wrote: “Since this is a blog largely for academic philosophers, let’s limit answers to our area of expertise: philosophy (as broadly construed as you’d like). Which philosophical or philosophy-related ideas are students not being expose..
Offend Responsibly
The thing I always like to stress is that although academics have the right to offend, they must do so responsibly, and they must to be able to defend the origin of the academic freedom of the right to offend and show that they exercise it in a way that’s as responsible as possible. Sometimes this means, if there is something on your syllabus that troubles a student..
From The Censor
One of the benefits of thought experiments and hypothetical examples is that, since the people with which they’re populated aren’t real, you can relentlessly discuss your way through the logical space without having to worry about how they’ll take what you’re saying about them. Your conversation might justifiably sound a bit different, I’d think, if your interlocuto..