On defending the vulnerable and the powerless, and giving them a voice

I have always defended philosophers (and others) who have been victims of wrongdoing, and have often given them a voice and a platform:  Rebecca Tuvel, Lawrence Torcello, Crispin Sartwell, Steven Salaita, the philosophers at King's College, London, and many, many others.  Earlier this week, I did the same for Alan Soble.  Alan Soble spent most of his career at the University of New Orleans, and post-Katrina has been an adjunct professor at Drexel University.  Without a fancy perch or pedigree--no Canada Research Chair, no post at one of the world's leading research universities--he developed through hard work an entire subfield, the philosophy of sex and love.  Carrie Jenkins, holder of a Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, devoted an entire section of a published journal article on philosophy of love to criticizing (indeed mocking) an undergraduate paper that she found on the Internet and that she wrongly attributed to Alan Soble, a leading figure in the field.   Her defense was “everyone makes mistakes."  But not everyone makes mistakes of this magnitude, and her response to being criticized by the victim of her carelessness was to revert to her usual self-absorption and self-pity.   As I noted, Prof. Soble wrote to me last week puzzled by the on-line outpouring of sympathy for Jenkins after his "angry" response to her when he had not been heard from.  I offered to share his actual response and objections to the reckless mistreatment to which he had been subjected.  Although most readers know who is in the right here (Soble was justifiably angry to have had undergraduate work attributed to him and mocked in a professional journal), I've been (only mildly, I confess) surprised by the minority who apparently would minimize the wrong done to Prof. Soble, ignore the vast power differentials between the victim and the wrongdoer here, and prefer that the victim remain unheard.

UPDATE:  A lawyer friend who enjoys following the juvenile antics of the shameless characters in philosophy sends me this remarkable tweet by Jenkins's husband.  I'll just quote my lawyer friend:  "Ridiculous.  These people need to grow up.  It was not a simple mistake – it was a series of mistakes, as Soble points out, meaning that at the very least it was carelessness, recklessness, and disregard for the applicable professional standards, which gets you fired from plenty of jobs, AND IT HARMED SOMEONE ELSE PROFESSIONALLY!"  True to form, Ichikawa and the other cyber-miscreants are now gearing up to try to harm Prof. Soble professionally for having the audacity to speak up about the wrong Jenkins did to him.  Needless to say, if they do try to railroad him out of his professional organizations, I will come to his defense again and, if necessary, raise money for legal action depending on how far these awful people go in trying to harass and intimidate him.

ADDENDUM:  Because of the special history with Carrie Jenkins, readers tend to send me news of the latest embarrassing spectacle she has made of herself on the Internet or in the media.  I ignore most of what's sent, but this case was different, involving as it does serious issues about a breach of professional norms of scholarship (still unrectified by the journal) and because of the harm done to Prof. Soble.  Prof. Jenkins broadcast her story about the mistake far and wide; Prof. Soble deserved to be heard too, and without now being subjected to a campaign of retribution (apparently trying to harm people whose speech they don't like is the only modus operandi in Vancouver).  Be that as it may, since Prof. Jenkins is irrelevant to me and to my work, I would be grateful not to hear about her every public display going forward, unless it implicates important professional issues, as it does here.  Thanks in advance, dear readers!