Editor resigns in protest
Arizona professor Stewart Cohen has resigned from his post as editor of Philosophical Studies over the mistreatment of an author for gender thoughtcrimes.
Cohen had been an editor at PS for 25 years.
In a letter published at University of Chicago law professor Brian Leiter’s blog, Cohen explains that his troubles began with an article he considered “unprofessional.”
Yale professor Robin Dembroff had accused MIT’s Alex Byrne of adopting a “political slogan” by arguing in an article for PS that the dictionary definition of “woman” — adult human female — is correct.
Along with the usual sneering solipsisms of gender sophistry, Dembroff’s response to Byrne attacked his education, motivations, and character.
Those sorts of sniping are usually out of bounds for the academy, but as Cohen learned, no punishment for gender wrongthink can ever be too extreme.
“Accepting such a paper without removing the personal attacks violates longstanding PS policies I have worked hard to enforce,” Professor Cohen says in his letter of resignation. “It also runs contrary to the policies of our publisher—Springer.”
Cohen was uninvolved in publishing Dembroff’s letter. “I was embarrassed and dismayed when I discovered this had happened,” he says.
But whereas Cohen wanted to repair the situation in the normal way that academics expect, his outreach was vetoed and his criticism was silenced.
“As editor-in-chief, I decided we needed to do two things. First, I thought PS should make a public announcement owning up to the mistake,” Cohen writes.
And to prevent this from happening again, I wanted to remind prospective authors that we will not publish papers containing personal attacks, and future referees that we consider it their responsibility to alert us when submissions contain such attacks. The referees who recommended acceptance of the paper neglected to do this.
Second, I invited the author who had been attacked to reply. I felt that we owed this to the author given that s/he had been defamed in the pages of PS.
Unfortunately, one of my fellow editors along with Springer opposed these steps. I was instructed by Springer not to make a public statement about the incident. And they rescinded my invitation to the author.
While this may seem like an obscure battle, it is actually an important example of queer theory attacking the integrity of academic institutions from within, wherever it can.
1/ I was de-platformed by a research methods seminar after speaking out about proposed guidance on the sex question on the 2021 Census which suggests respondents can answer in terms of their identity where this clashes with their sex. https://t.co/GQYGVyhLtH
— Alice Sullivan (@ProfAliceS) May 24, 2020
Having taken over “women’s studies” and re-labeled it gender studies, the acolytes of Judith Butler are moving on to other departments.
Social sciences and medicine are now under direct threat wherever the results of a study might contradict the “gender identity” narrative.
"Kathleen Lowrey, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, was asked to resign from her role.. All Professor Lowrey has been told is that she is somehow making the learning environment “unsafe” .. because she is a feminist who holds “gender critical” views."
Christ. https://t.co/1QEQPYJuyp
— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) June 3, 2020
Athletic departments are already giving women’s athletic opportunities, scholarships, trophies, medals, etc. to men.
The new Lysenkoism is coming for biology textbooks, excising any references to human sexual dimorphism and inserting a rainbow of 137 new gender flavors.
Far from a mere tempest in a teapot, the resignation of Professor Cohen marks just how dangerous this postmodernist pogrom is — and how far it has already gotten.
A guy who edited a philosophy journal for 25 years resigned over the simmering gender-identity wars. A lot of people noticed how unusual the heat of the Dembroff paper was by philosophy standards and this sorta proves it.https://t.co/xKkG8BwDY2
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) June 5, 2020
