Powerline reports the results of a survey of ideological bias in philosophy. “The more right-leaning the participant, the more hostility they reported personally experiencing from colleagues, and, overall, the more left-leaning the participant, the less hostility they reported personally experiencing.” The hostility was no mere matter of dislike experienced by the conservatives. It carried over to hiring decisions and evaluating papers and grant applications. The more left-leaning the philosopher, the more likely was such bias held to be justified. The author of the post wrongly thinks that such bias is an instance of “epistemic closure,” but that is a technical term, not a synonym for “closed-mindedness.” But this is a minor failing in an informative post.
