To the Editor:
Re “The New England Effect,” by Samuel J. Abrams (Sunday Review, July 3): Whoa there, Professor Abrams. While faculty at New England colleges and universities may well be shifting to the left, you provide no evidence that this is leading to an ideologically unbalanced education in the region. What, exactly, does liberal physics look like? Left-wing geology? Marxist math? Even where the subject matter may produce opportunities for left-leaning ideology, it is an insult to those of us in the profession to claim without proof that we allow our ideology to influence our syllabus. If your students can tell which way you lean from the content of your lectures, then shame on you.
GRAHAM DAVIS
Boulder, Colo.
Note from KBJ: I agree with this. The question is not whether professors are progressive or conservative in their private lives, but how they conduct themselves in the classroom. In my Social and Political Philosophy course, which I teach every other year, I discuss five theories of distributive justice: Libertarianism (which views justice as liberty), Radical Egalitarianism (which views justice as equality), Liberal Egalitarianism (which views justice as fairness), Conservatism (which views justice as desert), and Utilitarianism (which views justice as happiness). I guarantee you that at the end of the course, no student knows which theory (if any) I subscribe to. The only way a student would know is by going to this blog, and I make no reference to this blog in my courses. In my Ethics course, which I teach every spring, I discuss many normative ethical theories, from Theological Voluntarism to Utilitarianism to Egoism to Kantianism to Contractarianism. Same thing. In my Philosophy of Religion course, which I teach every other year, I discuss arguments for and against the existence of God. Same thing. I'm an educator, not an indoctrinator. I'm proud of that. I have no respect for professors who indoctrinate their students (or try to). They have no business being in academia.
Note 2 from KBJ: If you're a past student of mine, please post a comment either vouching for what I say or denying what I say. I promise to approve every such comment.
