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I'm not really very familiar with the situation with Professor Stock, could someone fill me in? Where these views she expressed as part of the course she was ru

I'm not really very familiar with the situation with Professor Stock, could someone fill me in? Where these views she expressed as part of the course she was running, or beliefs she held personally? If its the latter, absolutely in agreement, you shouldn't be fired for beliefs. If its the former, that's a little more complicated, I guess me not being familiar with how Philosophy is taught in university doesn't help. You obviously don't want to punish certain beliefs, but then surely by allowing them, especially if you have a professor which holds that opinion personally as well, you just end up punishing the opposing belief (in this case, a student arguing for trans rights may be marked lower because the professor disagrees and not because its incorrect, something I hear in other courses is not uncommon at all). So yeh, if its the latter, thats fine and I agree with the solidarity, if its the former, I have no idea. Or I could be completely misinformed

spindle 5y ago
> not being familiar with how Philosophy is taught in university It's still pretty Socratic, meaning that the professor doesn't just tell the students what their own views are but gives a range of views - usually although not always a very wide range. I've co-taught a course with one of the signatories of this letter. At the end of the course, one of the smartest students went to them outside class and said to them "Okay, but what do you personally think?" They said what they personally thought, and the student said "That's pretty much the opposite of what I would have guessed from your course." Not all professors are exactly like that, of course, but it's not too far from the norm either.
- bodge5000 5y ago
  I guess if the professors can be trusted to do that, that works well. I'm not implying they can't be trusted by the way, its just that of course without that the whole thing comes tumbling down Obviously not really anything like Philosophy so perhaps its treated more or less seriously depending on the subject, but I remember my younger brother telling me about a bad professor he had during uni when he was studying film, who would mark students down who didn't agree with her. I guess in film thats annoying, whereas in Philosophy the consequences are far more serious, so stopping that kind of thing is probably treated with more care. These are just guesses by me though
  - spindle 5y ago
    We're very lucky in philosophy that there's a tradition of literally thousands of years of teaching diverse opinions ... or at least most philosophy professors think there is. It's arguable whether or not what we do now has much in common with what Plato did. But anyway the culture is there, and is handed down very reliably from generation to generation, in my experience.

spindle 5y ago

> not being familiar with how Philosophy is taught in university It's still pretty Socratic, meaning that the professor doesn't just tell the students what their own views are but gives a range of views - usually although not always a very wide range. I've co-taught a course with one of the signatories of this letter. At the end of the course, one of the smartest students went to them outside class and said to them "Okay, but what do you personally think?" They said what they personally thought, and the student said "That's pretty much the opposite of what I would have guessed from your course." Not all professors are exactly like that, of course, but it's not too far from the norm either.

bodge5000 5y ago
I guess if the professors can be trusted to do that, that works well. I'm not implying they can't be trusted by the way, its just that of course without that the whole thing comes tumbling down Obviously not really anything like Philosophy so perhaps its treated more or less seriously depending on the subject, but I remember my younger brother telling me about a bad professor he had during uni when he was studying film, who would mark students down who didn't agree with her. I guess in film thats annoying, whereas in Philosophy the consequences are far more serious, so stopping that kind of thing is probably treated with more care. These are just guesses by me though
- spindle 5y ago
  We're very lucky in philosophy that there's a tradition of literally thousands of years of teaching diverse opinions ... or at least most philosophy professors think there is. It's arguable whether or not what we do now has much in common with what Plato did. But anyway the culture is there, and is handed down very reliably from generation to generation, in my experience.