Peter Boghossian Shrugs
Peter Boghossian chose to step down rather than continue being subjected to harassment and the disruption of his work.
“For ten years, I have taught my students the importance of living by your principles. One of mine is to defend our system of liberal education from those who seek to destroy it.”1
Dr. Peter Boghossian went on to finish his public letter of resignation from Portland State University by asking who he would be if he hadn’t left, given the illiberalism that pervaded the campus. In today’s “cancel culture” environment, he questioned the intellectual orthodoxy, demanded evidence for his colleagues’ claims, encouraged open discussions—and faced repercussions for doing so. He taught philosophy with a specialty in ethics, emphasizing critical thinking and the Socratic method. He used both influential works and classroom discussions with an ideologically diverse range of guest speakers, including many with whom he disagreed. As he explained:
From those messy and difficult conversations, I’ve seen the best of what our students can achieve: questioning beliefs while respecting believers; staying even-tempered in challenging circumstances; and even changing their minds. I never once believed—nor do I now—that the purpose of instruction was to lead my students to a particular conclusion. Rather, I sought to create the conditions for rigorous thought; to help them gain the tools to hunt and furrow for their own conclusions.
So, when he saw students unwilling to engage with other points of view, students and staff baselessly accusing others of bigotry, and faculty being reprimanded for asking for evidence in support of new policies, he became concerned. He asked questions, such as, “What is the evidence that trigger warnings and safe spaces contribute to student learning? Why should racial consciousness be the lens through which we view our role as educators? How did we decide that ‘cultural appropriation’ is immoral?”
Boghossian’s aim was to encourage students and faculty to think more deeply about the ideas and opinions being inculcated on campus. In 2017 and 2018, he took it further. He coauthored a number of deliberately “absurd or morally repugnant peer-reviewed articles that focused on race and gender,” which were published in academic journals such as Cogent Social Sciences. “Our purpose was to show that certain kinds of ‘scholarship’ are based not on finding truth but on advancing social grievances. This worldview is not scientific, and it is not rigorous.”
Unfortunately, Boghossian’s provocative method of making a point was not well-received. His name was graffitied along with swastikas, his panel discussions were disrupted, and he was subjected to baseless investigations and verbal abuse. The perpetrators were never disciplined.
Boghossian chose to step down rather than continue being subjected to harassment and the disruption of his work. And academia isn’t the only industry where people aren’t willing to work under such conditions. For instance, Bari Weiss resigned from the New York Times due to the cancel culture and hostile environment in the workplace, and other journalists have resigned from other publications for similar reasons. Reason and diversity of opinions are especially important in education and journalism, but they matter elsewhere as well. In any business or organization, success and progress require finding and acting on good ideas—and this depends on using reason and engaging in open debate. But if rational people continue to flee their industries, imagine the resulting disaster.
In fact, one brilliant writer did imagine such a situation: Ayn Rand, in her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged. She had a message for bright minds who are increasingly restricted from acting on their judgment (spoken through the character Francisco d’Anconia):
If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders—What would you tell him? . . .
[I would tell him] to shrug.2
Dr. Boghossian, who held up the importance of rationality and independent thinking while abuse was heaped upon him, has shrugged off academia. Fortunately, he hasn’t shrugged off the role of intellectual. Since his resignation a couple of weeks ago, he’s already debated in favor of free speech, given interviews, and cohosted the inaugural episode of the podcast Permission to Think. I look forward to seeing what else he accomplishes in the coming years.