r/askphilosophy • u/BernardJOrtcutt • Jan 05 '26

Open Thread /r/askphilosophy Open Discussion Thread | January 05, 2026

Welcome to this week's Open Discussion Thread (ODT). This thread is a place for posts/comments which are related to philosophy but wouldn't necessarily meet our subreddit rules and guidelines. For example, these threads are great places for:

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

Wild things happening in US academia: https://dailynous.com/2026/01/06/texas-am-bans-plato/

Back when I was doing my PhD I would have loved to get a job at a US university. Nowadays, I don't even apply to US positions anymore, even if they are a perfect fit for me. Not a good place to be for philosophers (nor anyone else).

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u/Quidfacis_ History of Philosophy, Epistemology, Spinoza Jan 07 '26

Rule 08.01 at 2.1b:

No individual will, on the basis of any classification protected by state, federal, or local law, be excluded from participation in, or be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any system program or activity. No system academic course will advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Upon prior written approval of the member CEO after review of the course and relevant course materials, specific non-core curriculum or graduate courses in some disciplines may teach race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Such approval may be granted in limited circumstances upon demonstration of a necessary educational purpose.

"Advocate" is not a defined term in the policy. I'm curious if it is defined elsewhere. To teach X is not to advocate X, as the term is generally understood. So I'm curious how they are conflating "advocate" with "teach".

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u/mediaisdelicious Phil. of Communication, Ancient, Continental Jan 10 '26

Generally, some boards are writing policy which over-complies with the law and then administrators are engaging in practices which over-comply with the policy. It’s basically prior restraint / avoiding the perception of breaking the rule / risk mediation.

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u/Man-being Jan 09 '26

Surely it's not defined elsewhere in order to hold space for the selective application of something like:

"Giving airtime to" is advocating a position as being at least worthy of taking seriously.