Imagine enrolling in a philosophy class at the College of the Canyons where some of Plato’s works are off-limits. You would probably feel cheated. Yet this is reportedly what is happening at Texas A&M University, where philosophy professor Martin Peterson has been instructed to remove portions of Plato’s writings from his syllabus.
Professor Peterson planned to use Plato to discuss race and gender ideology. But under a new Texas policy, courses may not address topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity —even when those ideas originated in texts written more than 2,300 years ago. As a result, students may be barred from engaging with Aristophanes’ famous myth of split humans or Diotima’s “Ladder of Love,” both of which are included in Plato’s writings.
This raises an obvious question: What is the value of studying Western philosophy if students are prohibited from reading and discussing Plato in full? Colleges and universities should be places where students wrestle with complex, uncomfortable and sometimes controversial ideas. Shielding them from ancient texts that touch on modern sensitivities undermines the very purpose of higher education.
The search for answers to today’s important and sometimes not-so-important questions does not begin and end with contemporary politics; it begins with the foundational works of Western civilization. That includes not only Plato, but also other ancient texts such as the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible, all of which grapple with human identity, morality, ethics, love and power.
As for Professor Peterson, he might take comfort in the fact that his punishment extends only to editing a syllabus. Plato’s own teacher, Socrates, was forced to drink the poison hemlock because the rules of ancient Athens found his teachings to be corrupting the youth of their city.
Philip Wasserman
Stevenson Ranch
