Dr Kyle Murray

Senior Lecturer in Law @CityLawSchool | Research & teach: criminal law.; deceptive sex; consent; constitutional law; human rights. Popular beard.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

The law behind the TV you're (I'm) watching. Corrie & Consent. Can you consent to strangulation? What are Dylan's prospects after Betsy suffers serious harm? Criminal law explained! #consent #criminallaw #CoronationStreet #bodilyharm

https://t.co/dQlTGhSNYr

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@shtuka70 @ovenbreadjoy @SwipeWright And of course you're all serious academics with dry, black letter research agendas, drawing only on incontestable facts, published in peer-reviewed journals, drawing on your own expertise and experience in making these weird personal attacks right? Right?

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb That repeats your claim. That hiring processes require EDI statements tells us nothing about the content/expectations of those statements. Your point is that some EDI awareness is not problematic. You must therefore provide evidence that it has ,in substance, crossed the line.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb In that context, my experience of EDI policies at universities where I've worked or applied is relevant. Anecdotal, perhaps. But more tangible than the high level statistics you've given.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb I'm aware that that's your claim. But your evidence to support it is statistics on EDI statements as part of the hiring process. You have not given any evidence that EDI has gone to the extreme that you claim, as surely you must do.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb It is. And it is not a demand that I've seen, nor is it a demand I think you have evidenced so far, in the strong sense that you have claimed. DEI policies that I've come across have all fallen on the weak side that you have agreed is uncontroversial.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb Awareness of the diversity of rhe students we teach - whether disability, class, race or whatever basis - is not the same as sacrificing standards. No EDI policy I've seen - as someone who has worked in a couple of universities - moves towards that.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb Candidates must demonstrate awareness of issues relating to equality and inclusion. That's sensible. But it's far from the strong claim you're making that this has taken over "real" intellectual pursuits.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb And DEI and postmodernism are not inherently, nor necessarily, linked.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb A very lengthy description, but you haven't said onwhat examples it is based. What's the evidence for such a sweeping claim? For example, I know it's often part of the hiring process to make a statement about one's approach to EDI - because I've done it. But that's a small part.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb I acknowledged the distinction that you made, yes. I'm yet to be persuaded it's more than a straw man in terms of being institutionalised. Are you drawing on any specific examples?

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb Well, no. Post 1 was "postmodernism", post 2 was "undermining epistemic standards such as objective truth", etc. That was not specific. Now you've clarified. The kind of PM that places "power analysis and group identity" "beyond question" is not one I support/have come across.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb Your original claim wasn't so specific about which "postmodernism" you were targeting. I strongly disagree that correspondence has any use in morality but we're starting from different metaethics so I'll leave the point there. PM teaches us to question. That's valuable imv.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb FWIW, I do think you're relying on rather a caricature of postmodern thought. It's a broad church.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb They are presuppositions. But, aside that: do you think those same standards apply to all areas of thought? Are there observable, predictable moral facts, for example? Are you saying that postmodernism is a threat to progress in *all* areas?

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

Coming from a legal, and occasional philosophical background myself, I'm always shocked how much philosophers can get away with saying without references. And the infamous "we". But that's not unique to Cofnas. Don't like his ideas, but let's make "our" criticism on point.

[Axel Folio, PhD, White Tears Distiller 🪁 @ISASaxonists]

Why does Cofnas' PhD introduction read like he was unsupervised? Why did no one ask him why he was making (unsupported) claims without references? And who is "our" in the very first sentence? "Our" in the West? "Our" as in in his field? "Our" as in the reader?
And who is "WE"?

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb Because you're defining those academic standards by reference to objectivist presupposed standards, and then saying PM undermines academic standards because it doesn't follow those same presuppositions. The argument ends up saying not much, aside from PM is a "threat".

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb And Leo Strauss once argued, with a straight face, that it leads to cannibalism too. It's a boogeyman argument. I've not met a postmodern cannibal yet. But I know of many postmodernists that are clearly more than "mediocre".

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb Your point hits a little circular to me: it's bad because it undermines "logical rigour", and how do we define "logical rigour"? Well by the standards of objectivism of course, the very thing postmodernism opposes as a construction.

[Dr Kyle Murray @KyleLMurray92]

@cezargolescu @Emma_A_Webb I wondered how long it would be before we blame the postmodern boogeyman.