For those outside of philosophy following our field’s discussion of trans issues - a thread. Some grad students and maybe 1% of tenured profs in top 20 Phil departments signed a letter critiquing the choice to give an OBE to a gender critical scholar.

That scholar not only has received an OBE for their work on these issues, which few philosophers have received, but also an Aristotelian Society main symposium (not something I have gotten), signaling that they have immense support for their views among leading philosophers.

This is not an accident. That scholar, despite having very few publications or citations, is regarded as a hero and a champion for their Gender Critical views among leading analytic philosophers, both in private and in public.

The same accolades and praise (public and private) and invitations would flow to any philosopher who denounced critical race theory or efforts to diversify the field along racial lines. That is my field.

The reason philosophy is even in the news for this is that our senior ranks are really into the “free speech martyr for right wing causes” thing. So anyone choosing to go this route (within limits, we are a centrist discipline) will be championed as such, as one sees.

You can use this thing - it’s called Google Scholar - to assess generally a philosopher’s actual impact on the fields to which they contribute. My own rather lame and admittedly somewhat elitist view is that academic accomplishment should matter.

If a scholar produces excellent widely cited work even in favor of controversial positions, they are deserving of praise and accolades. Doing the published work matters. What I have seen is the politicization of my field by fellow senior philosophers. This I deplore.