#freethought

joemygod.com/2026/01/tx-professor-told-to-cancel-lessons-on-woke-plato/

Apropos it's worth recalling that the Texas GOP clearly stated its opposition to critical thinking in its 2012 part platform. A statement by a Republican education committee member indicated that the inclusion of the following language was a mistake and couldn't be corrected until 2014:

We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

However, this purported regret is contradicted by the fact that Republicans apparently want at least one area of inquiry to be off limits to critical thinking. Here's a statement from the TX Republican Party:

“I think the intent is that the Republican Party is opposed to the values clarification method that serves the purpose of challenging students beliefs and undermine parental authority,” he said.

Politifact's 2012 analysis of this conservative attack on rational thought itself is not convincing. It naively takes at face value the TX GOP's concern about outcome based education, ignoring the fact that the GOP could have easily just explicated its opposition to outcome based education without roping in the entire category of critical thinking. It also ignores the quote above about values clarification, as if there's any educational value whatsoever to excluding axiology, or values, from rational thought. And it makes the clueless mistake of conflating obscurantist creationist opposition to the teaching of evolution as a form of critical thinking. Creationism has nothing to do with critical thinking about evolution. Creationism is the dogmatic insistence that the god of Christianity must have had some role in the diversification of life through time, and it holds this view in defiance of the imperative to provide evidence for itself. It wants parity with science while arrogating to itself the right to reject scientific standards of evidence.

And now there's new evidence that the opposition to critical thinking wasn't exactly an oversight in the Republican Party platform of 2012, it without question expresses a deep-seated belief among conservatives and conservative Christians that allowing the free reign of critical thought threatens their beliefs and values, so therefore thought itself must be opposed.

Just like with Republicans' opposition to critical thinking in 2012, which when you first hear of it no doubt prompted many people to say, "What? That can't be true," a similar incredulity is now warranted when you hear that Plato is now "woke" or subversive and must be outlawed.

Banning writings of Plato? This is nothing less than a reductio ad absurdum of Christian conservative belief, a proof, at least as close as one could get to proof, that (some or many) Christian conservatives will oppose thinking itself out of fear that it may lead to outcomes they don't like. Put in different terms, it's the demand that we promote individual stupidity and ignorance in order to shore up Christian and conservative values.

The professor in this case, apparently facing overwhelming political opposition, has complied with the demand to censor his course, but probably not in the way that the Christian censors would like. For more background on this case see,

https://www.undergroundusa.com/p/addressing-the-surge-of-hatred-in

📡 When outrage becomes currency, someone is always profiting. The surge in hatred isn’t accidental — it’s engineered, amplified, and rewarded. 💥

READ MORE: https://www.undergroundusa.com/p/addressing-the-surge-of-hatred-in

Individualism is the moral and philosophical stance that centers the individual over the community, valuing independence and self-reliance as well as promoting the gains of the individual over the state or a social grouping such as the family or community, while also opposing influences from the state or social group on the individual, based on the 'fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation'. Some of the fields of philosophy under individualism include humanism, freethought, anarchism, and hedonism, among many others that have developed from those, with philosophers such as Diogenes, Protagoras, Laozi, and Zeno involved in their development.

Hedonism is considered 'one of the oldest philosophical theories. Some interpreters trace it back to the Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 2100-200 BCE', and is a 'family of philosophical views that priorities pleasure' and the 'theory that all human behavior is motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain' and 'suggests that people only help others if they expect a personal benefit'. This pleasure can be physical or psychological, as can the pain, making it 'difficult to measure this balance and compare it between different people'. Aristippus of Cyrene, who lived from 435-356 BCE is usually identified as the 'earliest philosophical proponent', formulating an 'egoistic hedonism, arguing that personal pleasure is the highest good', holding that people were 'focused on the gratification of immediate sensory pleasures with little concern for long-term consequences'. Plato, who lived from about 428-347 BCE, countered with a view that 'proposed a balanced pursuit of pleasure that aligns with virtue and rationality' and Aristotle, who lived from 384-322 BCE, 'associated pleasure with eudaimonia or the realization of natural human capacities, like reason'. Epicurus, who lived from 341-271 BCE, took a more nuanced view of pleasure, further contrasting with those of Aristippus and his followers, stating that 'excessive desires result in anxiety and suffering, suggesting instead that people practice moderation, cultivate a tranquil state of mind, and avoid pain'. Antisthenes, who lived from 446-366 BCE, and the Cynics who followed him 'warned against the pursuit of pleasure, viewing it as an obstacle to freedom, while the Stoics dismiss hedonism altogether. In India, during about the 6th-5th centuries BCE, a form of egoistic hedonism developed based on the 'belief in the non-existence of God or an afterlife, this school advocates enjoying life in the present to the fullest', though many other Indian traditions advocate for an ascetic lifestyle, such as Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. In China, Yang Zhu, who lived from about 440-360 BCE, 'argued that it is human nature to follow self-interest and satisfy personal desires', founding the school of Yangism during the Warring States period.

Anarchism has roots that go back to ancient Greece and China and is a philosophy that 'seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism'. In China, philosophers such as Zhuang Zhou, who lived in the 4th century BCE during the Warring States period, and Laozi, who lived sometime between the 6th-4th century BCE, questioning the legitimacy of the state and Taoism 'has been said to have had "significant anticipations" of anarchism'. In ancient Greece, both philosophers and tragedians such as Aeschylus and Sophocles 'used the myth of Antigone to illustrate the conflict between laws imposed by the state and personal autonomy', with Antigone being the daughter of Oedipus and daughter/granddaughter of Jocasta, Oedipus' mother and wife, and the fate imposed on her when the incestuous relationship of her parents becomes known. Socrates, who lived from about 470-399 BCE, 'questioned Athenian authorities constantly and insisted on the right of individual freedom of conscience' and the Cynics taught that living according to nature (physis) was more important than living by human laws (nomos) and the Stoics felt that 'a society based on unofficial and friendly relations among its citizens without the presence of the state' was the ideal. Mazdak, a Zoroastrian monk who died somewhere around 524 or 528 CE, advocated for 'an egalitarian society and the abolition of monarchy, only to be soon executed by Emperor Kavad I'.

Humanism is a complex philosophical stance that has changed meaning over the centuries, but can be thought of as 'a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considered the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry'. While it is often associated with the Renaissance, it has roots going back to pre-Socratic philosophers. Protagoras, who lived around 440 BCE, 'put forward some fundamental humanist ideas', but only fragments of his work survive, including the first known agnostic statement: 'About the gods I am able to know neither that they exist nor that they do not exist nor of what kind they are inform: for many things prevent me from knowing this, its obscurity and the brevity of man's life'. Socrates turned philosophy from nature to humans with his need to 'know thyself'. He was also executed for atheism, despite being a theist, because of investigating 'the nature of morality by reasoning'. Aristotle continued this rationalism as well as a 'system of ethics based on human nature that also parallels humanist thought'. Epicurus also 'developed an influential, human-centered philosophy that focused on achieving eudaimonia', or general 'happiness' or 'welfare', which could be brought about through '[h]uman happiness, living well, friendship, and the avoidance of excess', which are considered core tenets of modern humanism.

In this second volume of his expansive history of atheism, S. T. Joshi examines the major trends in the last four centuries. The Scientific Revolution, culminating in the work of Galileo and Newton, expressed an increasing awareness of the natural functioning of the universe without the intervention of a god. In spite of the emergence of major religious figures in philosophy (Descartes, Spinioza) and literature (Pascal, Milton, Bunyan), the trend was toward secularism. This trend erupted in the French Enlightenment in the 18th century, with such titans as Voltaire, Diderot, Holbach, and Hume, some of whom were the first explicit atheists in Western history. In the 19th century, biblical criticism and the advance of science (especially Darwin’s theory of evolution) destroyed the remaining intellectual pillars supporting religion. This work reached a pinnacle in the 20th century, when atheism and secularism flourished in such figures as Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, and, at the beginning of the 21st century, the New Atheists. Throughout this period, however, the forces of religion continued to wage a rearguard struggle to maintain their supremacy in government, society, and culture; but their efforts were increasingly feeble, as a plethora of literary, philosophical, and cultural figures shed religious belief and propounded a purely secular view of life. Joshi traces all these issues in detail, consulting primary and secondary sources to portray a Western civilization where secularism is now the dominant mode of thought and action.

Endorsements

"Even a treatise exceeding six hundred pages cannot begin to contain the swelling ocean of S.T. Joshi's encyclopedic erudition. One marvels that a single brain is capable of such a feat. As a theologian and New Testament scholar, I can attest to the fairness and acute insight of his valuable section on Biblical Criticism. But I must also go on to compare this masterful volume to a detailed autopsy of the Divine Phantom. Orthodox theism declined to comatose oblivion in inverse proportion to the growing intellectual maturity of humanity. Each degree of God's decline marked an increase of humanity's vigor. Let Joshi's book stand as a tombstone attesting the Death of God!" —Robert M. Price, Editor, Journal of Higher Criticism "Epic in scale, comprehensive in its research, and engaging in its narrative, S.T. Joshi's magisterial history of Western atheism is without question the definitive work on this topic." —Ronald A. Lindsay, Editor, Free Inquiry "Masterfully written and highly readable, The Downfall of God (now two volumes) is undoubtedly S. T. Joshi's magnum opus." —Roderick Bradford, Editor and Publisher, The Truth Seeker magazine

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen In-Sight Publishing, Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada Correspondence: Scott Douglas Jacobsen (Email: [email protected]) Received: September 29, 2025 Accepted: November 8, 2025 Published: November 8, 2025 Abstract The interview with Tauya Chinama explores the intellectual and emotional trajectory of a Zimbabwean philosopher and humanist who journeyed from…