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Life Interests and Observations

Category: Letter

Postscript

March 29, 2019 by Douglas Jimenez

Postscript

A point that tends to get lost in all the furor is that I am not the only one negatively affected by public defamatory statements made against me. I have a wife, a family, grandchildren, past and present students, friends, supporters—all are affected. I thus have not just a right but also a duty to defend my good name (not to mention financial prospects). This necessarily involves casting doubt (based on reason and evidence) on the allegations made, and hence on those making the allegations. There is no way around this.

If a student makes a confidential allegation against a professor, this can be handled within the confines of the institution. There is no need to get into the public realm. But in the present case the student and her representative voluntarily went to the national press some nine months after the initial confidential allegation, for reasons that elude me. This made the matter public and so I had to make a public response, given the world in which we live. I did not make a public response to a confidential allegation; I made a public response to a public allegation that I deemed defamatory and without merit. I think anyone else would have done the same. What was I to do—say nothing? I owed it to my grandchildren to clear my name. But isn’t this all painfully obvious?…

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The Last Entry

March 29, 2019 by Douglas Jimenez

I wrote that essay about atheism after taking part in a panel discussion about religion at CUNY in December 2009. I am always being asked why I’m an atheist and not an agnostic, as if I were some sort of dogmatist. Instead of explaining it over and over again, I thought it would be useful to write it out. I hope it helps clarify people’s thoughts. I don’t expect it to convince theists, but it may help atheists formulate their views.

Astute readers will notice that I misspelled “lava” as “larva”.

Last Sunday I saw on TV the best women’s tennis match I’ve ever seen, between two Belgians, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin–goddesses both.…

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Reply to Letter

March 29, 2019 by Douglas Jimenez

Letter

I have read the “Letter From Concerned Philosophers” that has appeared on the Feminist Philosophers website. Let me clarify a few things. First, I fully endorse the spirit of the letter: students who make legitimate complaints against professors should not be retaliated against. I would sign a letter to this effect myself. However, second, and crucially, there have been reports in the press (the Chronicle of Higher Education) that have been attributed to the student and that negatively characterize me. I have no way of knowing how accurate these attributions are: press reports can be highly unreliable and the attributions have been mediated by another student. The allegations thus made against me (repeated and magnified on the internet) are extremely damaging to my reputation and future career. Moreover, they are inaccurate at best, parsimonious with the truth, and highly misleading. Again, I do not know how accurately these allegations reflect any statement made by the student herself (I have read the university’s official letter in which a record of the student’s statement contains far milder claims). I have a right to reply to these public allegations; so do others who are familiar with the facts. To do so involves casting doubt on their veracity, supplying context, correcting misinterpretations, and so on. This I have done, as have others. There is nothing “retaliatory” here, just a reasoned and careful attempt to state the truth. If this undermines the plausibility of what has been publicly alleged, and of the glosses and interpretations put upon it by others, then so be it. The truth is the truth. People must be accountable for their public statements. Had the student and her representative declined to make their allegations to the Chronicle, it would not have been necessary for me to respond; but they did, and so I responded. Quite what would motivate them to do this I do not know, since I had already resigned, but once the allegations were out there I had little choice than to state my case.

Two other points: The phrase “de facto retaliation” used in the Letter From Concerned Philosophers strikes me as mumbo jumbo—a verbal trick to make non-retaliation sound like retaliation. Are we to suppose that whenever an accused person defends herself against her accusers that she is guilty of “de facto retaliation”? Of course, if she defends herself successfully, according to standards of reason and evidence, the accusers will not come off looking so good; but is this an argument for preventing her from defending herself? Second point: I am described in the Letter as a “powerful philosopher”, the suggestion being that I could damage the career prospects of the student and her supporters. This is pure fantasy: how in the current state of things could I have such an influence? Any negative evaluation I might offer would be immediately suspect and ignored by any reasonable person, and would of course make me look extremely bad. Furthermore, the power here does not lie with me: I have had to resign my job, be elbowed out of my profession, had my reputation trampled, etc. I have no power at all as things stand. All I can do is state my case as clearly and convincingly as possible. Do the signatories of the Letter want to deny me this elementary right? Indeed, isn’t the Letter itself an example of “de facto retaliation”?…

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