Recently, Peter Boghossian, a Portland State University Philosophy professor, resigned from his position in an open letter in which he addressed the school as a “social justice factory,” stating students are “not being taught to think.”
Boghossian had been teaching at Portland State for a decade, yet left with a very abrupt resignation letter that was posted to the university’s provost online. In the lengthy letter, Boghossian established that he felt “morally obligated” to resign from the university as discussions on values like diversity and inclusion were being spearheaded to fulfill the opposite of intended goals. According to a fox interview he states, “The university basically created conditions that didn’t allow me to teach what I was hired to do, which was critical thinking and ethics," he said. "And so I could not retain my current position as is." He also explained that there was “a culture in which even asking questions about things is viewed as a violation. It’s become a dogma factory." He focused on the importance of “asking difficult questions” as getting uncomfortable can breed intellectual, raw learning.
As Boghossian tried to raise these concerns at Portland State University, he was faced with harassment by the student body and experienced no help from the college in regards to devling out punishments. He explains in the letter that “ swastikas in the bathroom with my name under them began appearing in two bathrooms near the philosophy department. They also occasionally showed up on my office door, in one instance accompanied by bags of feces. Our university remained silent. When it acted, it was against me, not the perpetrators”. He was commonly spat on and threatened when walking to class as well.
Some key quotes from the resignation letter:
“Faculty and administrators have abdicated the university’s truth-seeking mission and instead drive intolerance of divergent beliefs and opinions. This has created a culture of offense where students are now afraid to speak openly and honestly.”
“It has transformed a bastion of free inquiry into a Social Justice factory whose only inputs were race, gender, and victimhood and whose only outputs were grievance and division”
“This isn’t about me. This is about the kind of institutions we want and the values we choose. Every idea that has advanced human freedom has always, and without fail, been initially condemned,”
“As individuals, we often seem incapable of remembering this lesson (referring to previous quote), but that is exactly what our institutions are for: to remind us that the freedom to question is our fundamental right. Educational institutions should remind us that that right is also our duty.”
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with Petter Boghossian’s claims? Let us know! Should we present a food fight on this?
Sources
Click here to read the full letter.
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