Andreas De Block

Philosopher. "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

Stop funding research
(the way you do)
Because it is wasteful, unethical and unscientific
A thread (1/16)

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@freekvdvelde @omnibus89337 @thomas_spaas dat is dan wel weer een verstandige en redelijke mens.

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

An all-male panel is often called a 'sausage fest’. In philosophy, however, the correct term is a ‘Wiener Kreis’.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Legalize building housing

[Tijl De Bie @TijlDeBie]

Some people are trying to argue that Cofnas wás suspended for whistleblowing. Why don't you check for yourself? @mboudry, who also signed the petition by @sapinker and others, shared the letter the @UGent-rector sent to Cofnas: https://t.co/sS2FmDvsWm
I will not try to defend that letter, as I personally find it indefensible. But it is bad enough as it is: it is defamatory to misrepresent it as the petition does, claiming that the university's motivation was that Cofnas was a whistleblower against Arday. That was not the motivation, not even partially.
As you can read for yourself, the motivation consisted of the following main allegations:
* Breach of contract.
* Racist or discriminatory public statements.
* Disparaging statements toward other academics. [Only this part refers to Arday, as Cofnas called him "mentally disabled" and "a worthless scholar". The complaint is nót that Cofnas pointed out misconduct or fraud.]
* Harm to staff and student well-being (amounting to a heckler's veto).
* Reputational harm to the university.
In my view, none of these constitute a valid reason to suspend Cofnas' academic freedom, not even close. Yet, however strongly I may feel this way, I can accept that reasonable people can disagree on this. The motivation has *some* merit.
What reasonable people will never disagree on is that one may (or even should) flag academic misconduct whenever one encounters it, without being punished for it.
For this reason, I urge the petitioners to withdraw the petition and launch it again with accurate framing and an apology to @UGent for misrepresenting its motivation in a defamatory manner. I will then happily sign it, like I did with the previous petition in support of @nathancofnas' academic freedom.

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@Conservatisme @AndreasKinnegi1 van iemand die zich laat voorstaan op "geïnformeerde meningen" had ik een meer geïnformeerde mening verwacht. @JGTLeroux, leg jij het even uit?

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@jayvanbavel "nature" isn't a natural kind. Psychologists should understand that.

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@TobyThornapple you don't seem follow @ontologoff or @timnitGebru

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

what's even worse is that his doctoral dissertation contained no bibliography, no citations of literature, and only a single footnote. Cambridge should look into this.

[t @myetcetera]

When Wittgenstein submitted an essay for his BA degree at Cambridge, he did not include a preface and notes indicating the sources that he had used. When asked to supply these, he wrote this letter to G.E. Moore. (Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951, 76.)

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@AndreasKinnegi1 I don't think you understand the context of the tweet.

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

what's even worse is that his doctoral dissertation contained no bibliography, no citations of literature, and only a single footnote. Cambridge should look into this.

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@BelgianFans already among the very best free-kick specialists in the low countries.

[Tijl De Bie @TijlDeBie]

Thanks Dries. Both aspects, academic freedom and tolerance, are of course crucial in a university context. I have lots of sympathy for those who want Cofnas gone. I know many of them personally and I value them as fantastic colleagues and academics. I feel for them, and I really mean that. I wish we would just get together and talk this through rather than only try to gather as much support as possible.
My own position is that academic freedom should prevail as long as there is no clear misconduct in the university (actual harassment, actual discrimination of a particular person, fraud,...) and no legal conviction. E.g. being racist (if that applies), even overtly, is not enough (it is not illegal to be a racist, and our legislators had reasons for that).
Why?
Because tolerance is regulated by law. It is a value that is not specific to the university, but that transcends it. We can defer this to society.
Academic freedom, on the other hand, is our defining value. Nobody will care if we don't care. If we give it up, the university will have become a company like any other. It will be the end of the university as an institution unlike any other.

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@DHBostyn dank je! Het is af en toe nodig te benadrukken dat redelijke en beschaafde mensen fundamenteel van mening kunnen verschillen zonder hun redelijkheid en beschaving te verliezen.

[Chris Kavanagh @C_Kavanagh]

@SashaGusevPosts This is not restricted to this case. The general law of online pundits is that the strength and size of their opinion is orthogonal to the amount of time they have devoted to researching the topic they are opining on.

[Jan-Jaap van Peperstraten @jjvpeperstraten]

We lachen hier terecht om, maar dit is dus hoe "de vernietiging van de gemeenschappelijke wereld" (Hannah Arendt) er uit ziet. Er is geen gedeelde realiteit meer. Alles is een complot.

[Jeffrey Sachs @JeffreyASachs]

Belgium (and frankly the rest of the world) should respond by suspending all relationships with Texas universities.

[Master Alpaca @mralpacalips]

Well from now until forever Ghent shall be known as the locale were the trans rector of its university suspended a race realist for exposing a Cambridge fabulist setting off an angry rebuke from the US government against Belgium, whose response led to a chain of events that set off World War 3, probably.

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@d08890 @susbiselcen Pretty ironic she’s accusing you of academic tribalism

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@LauRademakers1 @RetroGigolo Hier wil ik wel wat geld op inzetten. Hoe zeker ben je ervan dat de UGent het gaat halen als dit voor een arbeidsrechtbank komt?

[Andreas De Block @DeblockBlock]

@filipbuekens @freekvdvelde @omnibus89337 @thomas_spaas is zeker verstandiger, maar niet minder ergerlijk.