The history of philosophy is sometimes described as a series of footnotes to Plato. The Greek philosopher lived around 400 BC and is one of the founders of Western philosophy.
But in the United States under Donald Trump, teaching freely about subjects such as racism and gender is no longer permitted. Plato, too, is censored. Texas A&M University, one of the largest public universities in the US, wants philosophy professor Martin Peterson to stop teaching certain texts that are deemed controversial.
Peterson sounds astonished in an interview with The New York Times: “A philosophy professor who is not allowed to teach Plato? What kind of university is that? Is that really what they want?”
Ethics
His course is on ethics and centres on contemporary issues such as abortion, the death penalty, equal rights, race and gender. Nobody in the United States will be surprised that his classes have come under fire. But the fact that even certain passages from Plato on love must be removed from the reading list shows just how much academic freedom in the US is under pressure.
Trump regards universities as opponents and sometimes applies heavy financial pressure to bring them into compliance. American science policy also affects Dutch academia, for instance because American journals no longer accept certain articles or because collaboration is becoming more difficult.