Boghossian: Campus 鈥榠dealogues鈥� curb free speech
Former professor says 鈥渟ole purpose鈥� of university idealogues is to limit sincere enquiry
The philosopher Peter Boghossian says that the sole purpose of idealogues in university diversity departments 鈥渋s to limit the speech of certain individuals and to make it more difficult for people to speak openly and honestly and for sincere enquirers to ask questions鈥�.
Speaking on the 成人论坛鈥檚 HARDtalk programme, Mr Boghossian, who resigned from Portland State University in 2021 after complaining the institution had become a 鈥榙ogma factory鈥�, said: 鈥淚 believe in free speech, I believe in open enquiry, I believe that people should have a kind of cognitive liberty to believe what they want without an authoritarianism, particularly in a university context.鈥�
A statement from Portland State University at the time that that institution 鈥渉as always been and will continue to be a welcoming home for free speech and academic freedom. We believe that those practices are not in conflict with our core institutional values of student success; racial justice and equity; and proactive engagement with our community.鈥�
In 2018, Mr Boghossian and two collaborators produced and submitted fake papers to various academic journals, seven of which got published, in what the three claimed was an attempt to show how the world of academia had become captured by so-called 鈥榳oke ideology鈥�. The incident became known as the 鈥済rievance studies affair鈥�.
But when challenged by Stephen Sackur as to whether his own views lacked nuance, particularly when it came to the value of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programmes and departments, Mr Boghossian said 鈥渋t鈥檚 pretty clear to me that we should have truth-based institutions. Jonathan Haidt the social psychologist at NYU said you either have social justice institutions or you have truth based institutions鈥�.
