Judith Butler and a Petition II

To return to the train of thought abandoned at the end of yesterday's post ... A large number of MLA members now believe that prominent feminist philosopher/theorist Judith Butler should resign her post in that venerable organization because she has used that position to make herself heard in a sexual harassment case on behalf of the harasser.

She had not consulted the MLA collectively before intervening in that matter, and the petitioners say this was professionally and ethically inappropriate.

A little more than a year ago now, a student at New York University accused professor Avital Ronell of sexual harassment. The graduate student. Nimrod Reitman, says that Ronell assaulted and stalked him. There are emails in which Ronell refers to Reitman as "my most adored one" and "sweet cuddly baby." Pro tip to all professors out there -- get your jollies from anyone in the whole universe who is NOT a student of yours and, in the event you ever feel compelled to send a student of yours an email using phrases like that (even if everything is mutual and consensual) take a very cold shower until the feeling goes away.

Reitman contends that it was emphatically not the case that everything here was mutual and consensual.

That sort of scandal is essentially a dime a dozen these days, and would not be worth mentioning here had Butler not gotten involved. She not only signed the a letter in support of respondent Ronell, she may have had a role in composing it. And the letter said: We testify to the grace, the keen wit, and the intellectual commitment of Professor Ronell and ask that she be accorded the dignity rightly deserved by someone of her international standing and reputation.

That kind of language sounds familiar. Dr Bill Cosby, too, is known for his keen wit. Lawrence Krauss for his intellectual commitment. Harvey Weinstein, too, had until quite recently a considerable international standing and reputation. And the acting career of Kevin Stacey might be considered a prolonged display of "grace." The Butler letter for Ronell's benefit is an eerie echo (not just in that sentence but throughout) of the sorts of things that are always said on behalf of powerful men caught out in such a matter.

Butler and some others may have taken the attitude that Title IX only protects those they see as on the wrong side of history.

Here's a piece on the Ronell case from Salon. https://www.salon.com/2018/08/18/when-a-woman-is-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-the-strange-case-of-avital-ronell/

The good news in all this is that Butler in recent days seems to have recanted of much of the nonsense in her letter, including the stuff quoted above. Sometimes even a distinguished philosopher who has already staked out a position can learn something, and can beat a more-or-less dignified retreat.

In particular, Butler now says: "we should not have used language that implied that Ronell’s status and reputation earn her differential treatment of any kind. Status ought to have no bearing on the adjudication of sexual harassment. All faculty should be treated the same under Title IX protocols, that is, subject to the same rules and, where justified, sanctions."

Karma points for her.

A Story About Coleridge

This is a quote from a memoir by Dorothy Wordsworth, reflecting on a trip she took with two famous poets, her brother, William Wordsworth, and their similarly gifted companion, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We sat upon a bench, placed for the sake of one of these views, whence we looked down upon the waterfall, and over the open country ... A lady and gentleman, more expeditious tourists than ourselves, came to the spot; they left us at the seat, and we found them again at another station above the Falls. Coleridge, who is always good-natured enough to enter into conversation with anybody whom he meets in his way, began to talk with the gentleman, who observed that it was a majestic waterfall. Coleridge was delighted with the accuracy of the epithet, particularly as he had been settling in his own mind the precise meaning of the words grand, majestic, sublime, etc., and had discussed the subject with William at some length the day before. “Yes, sir,” says Coleridge, “it is a majesti

Five Lessons from the Allegory of the Cave

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Searle: The Chinese Room

John Searle has become the object of accusations of improper conduct. These accusations even have some people in the world of academic philosophy saying that instructors in that world should try to avoid teaching Searle's views. That is an odd contention, and has given rise to heated exchanges in certain corners of the blogosphere. At Leiter Reports, I encountered a comment from someone describing himself as "grad student drop out." GSDO said: " This is a side question (and not at all an attempt to answer the question BL posed): How important is John Searle's work? Are people still working on speech act theory or is that just another dead end in the history of 20th century philosophy? My impression is that his reputation is somewhat inflated from all of his speaking engagements and NYRoB reviews. The Chinese room argument is a classic, but is there much more to his work than that?" I took it upon myself to answer that on LR. But here I'll tak

Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

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