Texas A&M Removes Plato from Introductory Philosophy Class

After a student posted a viral video of an argument with a Texas A&M instructor about the content of an English class, Texas politicians went ballistic. Soon the instructor was suspended and the university president was fired. Last month, the university regents adopted a policy banning courses that “advocate race or gender ideology” and requiring university approval for any exemptions for materials that serve “a necessary educational purpose.”

And thus we arrive at the first academic semester after the donnybrook and with the new policy in place. The results are not terribly surprising, though some are already complaining about “malicious compliance” (best defined as following the rule faithfully but in ways that expose the rule as badly drafted or just plain dumb).

Brian Leiter has the details (including the syllabus and the university correspondence) of Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson, who was to teach his usual introductory class on “Contemporary Moral Issues” this spring. His syllabus includes two days on “race and gender ideology.” He emphasizes in his email to the university that he does not “advocate” for any position in the class, and it is worth noting that the chapter of the text he assigns for that section is actually titled “Equality and Discrimination” and includes excerpts from authors like Iris Marion Young and Kwame Anthony Appiah. For good measure, he also included additional excerpts from Plato’s Symposium in that section of the class.

The department chair reported to him that the “College leadership team” had decided that the section, including the Plato readings, would have to be excised from the class. If Peterson did not do so, he would be reassigned to teach a different class. Censoring Plato was probably not exactly what the regents had in mind (though Victorianism does seem to be making a comeback in some circles), but such a result was all too predictable when viral videos and political backlash determine the boundaries of what can be taught in university classrooms and risk-averse administrators are charged with making sure that no professor bumps into those boundaries.

There’ll be plenty of material for a second edition of You Can’t Teach That! at least.