ABSTRACT

Members of the field of philosophy have, just as other people, political convictions or, as psychologists call them, ideologies. How are different ideologies distributed and perceived in the field? Using the familiar distinction between the political left and right, we surveyed an international sample of 794 subjects in philosophy. We found that survey participants clearly leaned left (75%), while right-leaning individuals (14%) and moderates (11%) were underrepresented. Moreover, and strikingly, across the political spectrum from very left-leaning individuals and moderates to very right-leaning individuals, participants reported experiencing ideological hostility in the field, occasionally even from those on their own side of the political spectrum. Finally, while about half of the subjects believed that discrimination against left- or right-leaning individuals in the field is not justified, a significant minority displayed an explicit willingness to discriminate against colleagues with the opposite ideology. Our findings are both surprising and important because a commitment to tolerance and equality is widespread in philosophy, and there is reason to think that ideological similarity, hostility, and discrimination undermine reliable belief formation in many areas of the discipline.

摘要

正如其他人一样，哲学领域的成员也有政治信念或心理学家所说的意识形态。在现场如何分配和感知不同的意识形态？利用左右政治之间的熟悉区别，我们调查了794个哲学学科的国际样本。我们发现，调查参与者显然向左倾斜（75％），而向右倾斜的个体（14％）和中度人士（11％）的代表性不足。而且，而且令人惊讶的是，从极左倾的个人和温和派到极右倾的个人的整个政治范围，参与者报告说在该领域都遭受意识形态的敌视，有时甚至是来自政治方面的人。最后，尽管大约一半的受试者认为在该领域对左倾或右倾个体进行歧视是没有道理的，但相当一部分人却表现出明显的意愿来歧视具有相反意识形态的同事。我们的发现令人惊讶且重要，因为对宽容与平等的承诺在哲学中已得到广泛传播，并且有理由认为，思想上的相似性，敌意和歧视会破坏该学科许多领域中可靠的信念形成。