We have commented on the ridiculous but probably irrelevant APA "Code of Conduct" over the last few weeks. The biggest risk is that this document will be used as an excuse to fire some temporary faculty, citing the authority of the Dear Abbys of the APA. But a number of readers have asked: who wrote this nonsense?
The document was, as it happens, produced by the following committee:
Nancy J. Holland (Chair) (PhD, Berkeley), Professor of Philosophy at Hamline University. Specialties include Continental philosophy (esp. Heidegger) and feminist philosophy.
Scott A. Anderson (PhD, Chicago), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia (he appears to have been at the Assistant Professor rank since 2003). Specialties include ethics, social & political philosophy, and philosophy of sex and gender.
Leslie P. Francis (PhD, Michigan; JD, Utah), Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Law at the University of Utah. Specialties include bioethics, environmental ethics, philosophy of law, disability law, and health law.
Ned Markosian (PhD, U Mass/Amherst), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst. Specializes in metaphysics.
Diane Michelfelder (PhD, Texas), Professor of Philosophy at Macalester College. Specialties include 20th-century Continental philosophy (esp. phenomenology), philosophy of technology, and applied ethics.
Julinna Oxley (PhD, Tulane), Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Coastal Carolina University. Specialties include ethics, applied ethics, social and political philosophy, and feminist philosophy.
Sally Scholz (PhD, Purdue), Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. Specialties include social & political philosophy and feminist philosophy.
Yolonda Y. Wilson (PhD, North Carolina), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Howard University. Specialties include critical race theory, feminist philosophy, and African-American philosophy.
It would be fair to say this Committee is not exactly representative of the profession, in terms of specialties, education, or interests. Indeed, it would be fair to say that the Committee that drafted this report was largely captured by feminist philosophers and SPEP members. This might explain the Committee's bizarre idea that philosophers have an ethical or professional obligation to "respect the philosophical opinions and traditions of others" which has never played any role in philosophy from Plato to Nietzsche to Quine.
I guess I am most surprised by Prof. Francis who, as a lawyer, should not have signed on to this careless and overbroad laguage, but perhaps she was not very involved.
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