Join us for Heterodox Academy’s Colloquium Series, a virtual seminar series designed to highlight the scholarship and thought leadership emerging from our community.

This colloquium will feature Rebecca Tuvel, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rhodes College, presenting her framework for defending philosophers' right to advance controversial ideas in service of philosophical inquiry

The Ethical Limits of Philosophical Inquiry

Recently, some philosophers have called for censoring, deplatforming, or otherwise discouraging academics who defend “radioactive” philosophical views, citing their potential for harm to marginalized groups. Others concede that academic freedom protects such work but insist that advancing it is nonetheless morally wrong. Targets include work on gender, voluntary eugenics, transracialism, and consensual adult–child sex. These controversies sharpen a pressing question: What are the ethical limits of philosophical inquiry? 

This question has received little attention due to its frequent conflation with questions of academic freedom. In this presentation, Dr. Tuvel will share the theory she has co-developed called the Institutional Model. On this view, academic philosophy is a legitimate institution whose role-players may permissibly advance even (unintentionally) harmful or mistaken views in service of its core aim: advancing philosophical understanding. She’ll defend the model by drawing parallels to other institutions where comparable conclusions are far less controversial—the adversarial legal system, investigative journalism, and markets. She’ll then address three objections: that the model overgeneralizes; that it licenses unjust power imbalances within the discipline; and that it licenses excessive harm to marginalized groups. She argues that, while each is instructive, none succeeds.

This colloquium, offered exclusively to HxA members on September 30, 2026 from 4:00–5:00 PM ET, will include time for audience discussion and Q&A. You'll hear Dr. Tuvel respond directly to the toughest objections to her own framework, and get the chance to bring your own questions to the conversation.

Register today to join the conversation.

About the speaker

Rebecca Tuvel is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rhodes College. She works on the philosophy of race, sex, and gender, the ethics of identity, and the ethics of academic inquiry.