In which I correct an obvious error by Professor John McAdams and wish him many fruitful conversations

In this recent blog post Professor John McAdams makes a blunder, which I correct in a comment left at his place, reproduced here:

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Professor McAdams, the sentences you attribute to me were instead made by Justin Weinberg, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina, and author of this post at his blog, Daily Nous: 

That you make such an elementary mistake does not lead one to confidence in the care with which you compose your writings on this issue.

I am however the author of this Open Letter, which now has over 200 signatories: 

I direct your attention to the first comment, by Bonnie Honig, Professor of Political Science at Brown University:

Please add my name to this. Even if everything printed were true and the grad student said and did everything attributed to her ( which I do not grant) this response -- public calling out, exposure to public condemnation, political labeling,-- by a faculty member violates every expectation of graduate training and collegiality. It is a betrayal of the trust invested in faculty to mentor and guide students, not to make of them casualties in larger battles whether inside or outside their institutions.

I found this comment instructive as well:

I support this letter and am so pleased to see how widespread the response has been. Ms. Abbate deserves no less than any instructor, tenured or otherwise, deserves: due process, a resistance to trying a case in the court of public opinion, respect for her expertise, and the professionalism of her colleagues. The kind of news-baiting in which Professor McAdams has engaged is a disservice to students and faculty alike. I suspect he would not enjoy anyone vilifying him without first attempting to gather the facts in the case. In addition, the student who recorded a conversation without Ms. Abbate's consent, and who denied he was doing so, should be apprised of the law, as well as of general principles of ethics. I am a graduate of a Jesuit institution (Fordham University) and have studied Jesuit history. This developing situation is absolutely not in keeping with rational interpretation of the _Constitutions_ or later interpretations of "Our Way of Proceeding."

Kathleen M. Comerford, Department of History, Georgia Southern University

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Finally, I do not wish you to "shut up"; I hope you continue talking, and wish you a very pleasant conversation with the Dean, Provost, and perhaps even President of Marquette.

UPDATE 1: Th 20 Nov, 9:48pm: McAdams has corrected his blogpost, though without noting the original error, nor approving the rest of my comment. If the former is only mildly problematic -- though a respect for blog tradition would recommend noting the original mistake along with the correction -- the second is more troubling. I will give him the benefit of the doubt however so I've left another comment with the substantive claim, adding something to the effect of the following: 

Professor McAdams cherry-picks some extreme correspondence and then claims they reveal the "id of the politically correct." I counter by citing the calm and reasoned criticisms of Honig and Comerford. I invite Professor McAdams to engage their claims to avoid the appearance of cherry-picking his opponents, a mild form of straw man.

UPDATE 2, Friday 21 November, 7:25am: In this new post, Professor McAdams indulges yet again his penchant for cherry-picking the words or actions of graduate students he doesn't like. Yet he has not approved my comment on the previous post, sent to him well before he authored this one, in which I ask him to engage the arguments of professors. We'll see if he ever approves any more of my comments.

UPDATE 3, Friday 21 November, 1:07pm: Professor McAdams has approved my comments. I thank him for that and hope that he will accept the invitation to engage substantively with the criticisms of Honig and Comerford. 

Comments

[Victor Nolan]

This is petty. You catch him on a mistake and you use that to say "see? His entire position is undermined."

By my estimates it's a cowardly way to "debate" the issue.

[John Protevi]

Victor, can you show me where I say or even imply any such thing? I said his sloppiness does not inspire confidence; that's a far cry from claiming to have undermined his position.

The main thrust here however should be obvious. Professor McAdams cherry-picks some extreme correspondence and then claims they reveal the "id of the politically correct." I counter by citing some calm and reasoned criticisms. I invite you to engage the claims of Honig and Comerford.

[MarquettePhilosopher]

McAdams' mistake indicates that he recklessly publishes articles, which have the real potential of harming vulnerable graduate students, without adequately conducting and organizing his "research."

I would also like to draw attention to one of his comments found in the comment section of his original attack on Ms Abbate:

"I only post based on students who accounts I know are reliable."

Apparently, according to McAdams, "reliable" students are those who lie to the face of their instructors about recording them.

[Peter Russell]

Such a nice post. Thanks