University professor banned from teaching about Plato

A statue of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato stands outside the Academy of Athens. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

A professor at Texas A&M University was apparently told that Plato was too homosexual to teach.

On Tuesday (January 7), Professor Martin Peterson was allegedly told by administrators to cut some of the teachings by the ancient Greek philosopher.

Christie Sweet, his department chair and head of the philosophy department, reportedly wrote in an email that cutting back on certain teachings would allow his philosophy class to comply with new policies regarding discussion of race and gender.

Daily Nous allegedly viewed the email. order the university “Remove modules based on racial and gender ideologies and interpretations of Plato that may include them.”

Interpretations influenced by this instruction are from Plato’s Symposium, especially Aristophanes’ account of the origin of love and Diotima’s Ladder of Love, both of which deal with same-sex love.

The board updated the rules in November to specify that courses cannot advocate “topics related to race or gender ideology, or sexual orientation or gender identity,” in response to the controversy over former Texas A&M University President Mark’s children’s literature course, Melissa McCall, the university’s professor. said in welsh “It contained content that was inconsistent with the reasonable expectations of the standard curriculum for the course.”

Ms. Wales dealt with the backlash against Ms. McCall and resigned from her position last September. McCall was fired after a video went viral showing students confronting her over her use of LGBTQ+ themes in her analysis of children’s books.

Peterson, who has criticized the rules as censoring professors and restricting academic freedom, said the recitals were related to lectures on sexual morality and that “these topics are commonly covered in these types of courses across the country.”

“Texas A&M is a public institution bound by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court noted that academic freedom is ‘a special concern of the First Amendment and does not tolerate laws that cast a shadow of legitimacy in the classroom,'” Peterson wrote in a response to Dean Sweet.

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