This time the target is a young social scientist, Noah Carl, who was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Cambridge, which the mob now wants him to lose. I've looked into Carl a bit since I first heard about this last week. He seems a person with foolish and reprehensible political views and an unhealthy appetite for evolutionary psychology. But that is neither here nor there: as this essay makes plain, many of those signing the letter don't know anything about his work or its merits or demerits. This is a straight-up case of an Internet mob attacking core academic freedom (these folks should read Marcuse!). His work was refereed by Cambridge and he was awarded a Fellowship; it is beyond outrageous for outsiders, most of whom are ignorant of his work, but well-informed about and outraged by his politics, to call for an investigation into his appointment. A public letter impugning his competence is, unless true, also defamatory, both in the U.S. and certainly in the U.K. I hope he takes legal action. Until these kind of reckless and politically motivated attacks meet with legal repercussions, we will continue to see them. I'll be posting a list of academic philosophers who sign this letter; they deserve to be recognized for their contempt for academic freedom.
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