The Life and Age of Woman, an 1848 illustration by James Baillie.

What Is a Woman? Many Philosophers Know, But Aren’t Allowed to Say

An April 17 Quillette article about sex and gender by MIT scholar Alex Byrne prompted yet another round of debate and denunciation among his contemporaries.

Thomas Palmer

2 May 2023 · 17 min read

Last week, Alex Byrne, a professor of philosophy at MIT, published a Quillette article describing violations of standard norms on academic publishing experienced by himself and Holly Lawford-Smith, a political philosopher at the University of Melbourne. Byrne and Lawford-Smith are two of very few philosophers—and Byrne is the only senior philosopher (that is, of independent name recognition in the discipline)—who’ve been willing to publicly defend some claims inconsistent with contemporary orthodoxy in the philosophy of sex and gender.

Campus Speech and Compromised Safety

As universities try desperately to serve two masters (knowledge production; diversity and inclusion), they will increasingly end up sanctioning speech that should be protected.

Holly Lawford-Smith

31 May 2023 · 9 min read

Campus Puritans Come for an Astronomer—And His Byline

By demanding that morality tests be imposed on scientific journal authorship, Geoff Marcy’s critics are creating a dangerous precedent.

Lawrence M. Krauss

25 May 2023 · 12 min read

What Is a Woman? Many Philosophers Know, But Aren’t Allowed to Say

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Campus Speech and Compromised Safety

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