The Journal of Controversial Ideas is already, well, controversial. Here's a founder's defense.
News broke last week that philosophers Jeff McMahan, Peter Singer, and Francesca Minerva are planning to start a publication called the Journal of Controversial Ideas, an interdisciplinary academic outlet where scholars will be allowed to present arguments and findings pseudonymously, without fear of damaging their reputation.
Almost immediately, the journal was cast as another volley in the wars over free speech and political correctness on college campuses. Critics mocked it as an attempt by white, privileged academics (while Minerva is a postdoc, Singer and McMahan are both among the most prominent applied ethicists in philosophy) to smuggle reactionary and bigoted views that academics would not feel comfortable airing under their own names. Not helping matters was McMahan's declaration to a reporter that he would be open to publishing an article defending eugenics, if its arguments were of sufficient quality.
"Essentially, it is a safe space, one where authors do not have to deal with feedback or criticism from those at the sharp end of their 'controversial' ideas," Nesrine Malik warned of the journal in a Guardian column. "It is publishing without the responsibility that comes along with that."
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday November 25 2018, @03:08AM
So it's not all White Supremacy, but "Live Organ Transplants" [youtube.com], a la Monty Python?
There was another aristarchus submission [soylentnews.org] that would have gone well with this, an interview with the founding editor of Quillette [wikipedia.org].
More of an issue of tracking the Controversial Ideas of the Dark Enlightenment [wikipedia.org] and Heterodox Academy. [heterodoxacademy.org] They are being identified, ridiculed, mocked, and defrocked and de-platformed. That can only mean one of two things.