Academic philosophy has resembled a battleground in recent years, and not just because of its famously bare-knuckled argumentative style.

A series of sexual harassment scandals has engulfed prominent male scholars, while feminist philosophers and others have pushed to diversify what remains, far more than the other humanities, an overwhelmingly white, male field.

Now, an article in a leading feminist philosophy journal has touched off a firestorm of criticism and countercriticism, illuminating a divide within feminist philosophy itself and raising a thorny question: Just what counts as good philosophy where sensitive issues of identity are concerned, and who gets to decide?

The article, called “In Defense of Transracialism,” by Rebecca Tuvel, appeared in the spring issue of the journal Hypatia. Ms. Tuvel, an assistant professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, asserts that the arguments that support transgender identity also support the possibility of transracial identity.