Editor’s note: The letter below was penned in response to another letter titled “Philosophers Should Not Be Sanctioned Over Their Positions on Sex and Gender” that appeared in Inside Higher Education on July 22, 2019. On July 30, IHE published a response titled “Taking Trans Lives Seriously” and declined to publish the following letter. The signatories are concerned that the climate in a field of study is being mischaracterized and important voices have been left out of the discussion. As with all posts by contributing authors published on the APA Blog, the views and opinions do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the APA, the APA Blog, or our editors.

A recent letter in Inside Higher Education argues that philosophers who debate the nature of sex and gender cannot advocate certain positions, for example, skepticism about the concept of gender identity, or they risk being censured. But debates about sex and gender needn’t be conducted in an exclusionary way. Indeed, they usually are not. We are responding here specifically to clarify a potential misperception about the academic climate when it comes to discussions of sex and gender and to highlight the value of academic responsibility as an important aspect of academic freedom.

The nature of sex and gender and the relationship between them are not forbidden topics of philosophical discussion. Many feminists holding significantly different philosophical views have been respectfully debating them for decades. One easy way to see a quick overview of these different positions is by reading the Stanford Encyclopedia entry on “Feminist Metaphysics” or the entry on “Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender.”

As feminist philosophers who have, variously, argued for, researched, engaged with, and taught these views, we are well-positioned to claim that there is no established orthodoxy about gender in academic philosophy. There continues to be much lively disagreement on matters of gender without accusations of transphobia. We do, however, think it is important, when exercising our academic freedom, that we consider how our views may impact others. Academic responsibility requires us to consider differences of power and vulnerability in speaking of and to others and the effects of our words in reinforcing structures of oppression. There are many diverse, contentious views about gender and gender identity that can be–and are–engaged with in ways that do not call into question the integrity and sincerity of trans people nor the validity of their own understanding of who they are. We should conduct our research freely and responsibly, without treating other people’s lives as though they are abstract thought experiments.

Signed,

Linda Alcoff, Professor of Philosophy, CUNY

Ásta, Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University

Saray Ayala-López, Assistant Professor, Sacramento State University

Nancy Bauer, Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University

Talia Mae Bettcher, Professor of Philosophy, CalState Los Angeles

Samantha Brennan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Guelph

R.A. Briggs, Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University

Susan Brison, Eunice and Julian Cohen Professor for the Study of Ethics and Human Values, Professor of Philosophy, Dartmouth College

Shannon Dea, Professor of Philosophy, University of Waterloo

Esa Díaz-León, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Barcelona

Ann Garry, Professor Emerita of Philosophy, CalState Los Angeles

Lori Gruen, William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, Wesleyan University

Kim Q. Hall, Professor of Philosophy, Appalachian State University

Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s & Gender Studies, MIT

Jules Holroyd, Vice Chancellor’s Fellow in Philosophy, University of Sheffield

Katharine Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Nottingham

Karen Jones, Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne

Serene J. Khader, Associate Professor of Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center and Jay Newman, Chair in Philosophy of Culture, Brooklyn College

Rebecca Kukla, Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University

Kate Manne, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Cornell University

Jennifer McKitrick, Professor of Philosophy, Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Mari Mikkola, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oxford

Andrea J. Pitts, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Camisha Russell, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Oregon

Jennifer Saul, Professor of Philosophy, University of Sheffield

Naomi Scheman, Professor Emerita of Philosophy and Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota

Natalie Stoljar, Associate Professor and Interim Director, Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University

Alessandra Tanesini, Professor of Philosophy, Cardiff University

Yannik Thiem, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University & Associate Professor, Department of Religion, Columbia University

Charlotte Witt, Professor of Philosophy, University of New Hampshire

Audrey Yap, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Victoria

Rocío Zambrana, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Oregon

Perry Zurn, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, American University, Washington DC

Note: We had originally sent this letter as a direct response to Inside Higher Education. They declined to publish it on the grounds that they had already accepted a response piece, which has since appeared here. We are not taking issue with that piece or its arguments. But our response makes a distinct contribution to the discussion, and importantly is written and signed by specialists who regularly research and teach issues of sex and gender. It strikes us as bad editorial practice on the part of Inside Higher Education to publish the original piece about the state of a philosophical field written primarily by non-specialists, but refuse to publish corrective remarks by those who actively work in it.