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Political Correctness, was a sociocultural movement that began more than 30 years ago in the American Academy-(primarily within various the Humanities and Social Sciences). However, in the past few years, the term, "Political Correctness", has been sidelined by newer (and more confrontational sounding) language, such as, "Cancel culture" and "wokeness". Whether one chooses to use the older term, Political Correctness or the more contemporary terms, Cancel culture and wokeness, they all seem to share one common characteristic; each of these sinister sounding terms, has been and is very much, preoccupied with particularity, as well as being equally contemptuous of...the Universal.

As a former History Instructor, I am quite aware of how cultural particularities have evolved over the ages, though the field of Philosophy, is, in many ways, the opposite of History.

Philosophy, (without sounding overly simplistic and juvenile), was and is, a discipline which strove and strives for an understanding of the universal, the idealistic and the sublime; not necessarily what has been accomplished, but what COULD be accomplished and why it SHOULD be accomplished. Yet, having watched the degeneration of Political Correctness over the years, it seems to have gone further away from the universalistic aims of Philosophy and instead, welcoming the pettiness of cultural particularities-(i.e. a more hyper nationalistic understanding of Philosophy's origins, as well as its historic strives and purposes).

To put it more bluntly....Is Political Correctness-(and its "Woke" allies), inherently anti-intellectual, as well as the enemy of Philosophy?

Alex
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    Political Correctness is at bottom an effort to constrain thought based on political considerations, therefore it is inevitably opposed to any other ways of producing thought, whether religious, rational, scientific, or otherwise. Even mathematics has been attacked as a way of acquiring knowledge. – David Gudeman Jun 20 '21 at 22:49
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    I remember "PC" being used ironically/mockingly in the 1960's. It's a lot older than 30 years. Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution which is the grandfather of today's cultural Marxism. – user4894 Jun 20 '21 at 22:54
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    How real are any of these supposed anti-philosophical phenomena? It always seems to me that these are phrases used by intellectual narcissists trying to play the "freedom of speech" card when they get called out for their bias, ignorance, and hypocrisy. – Kristian Berry Jun 20 '21 at 23:14
  • Can you explain what you mean by "the Universal" and how philosophy is the opposite of history? – E Tam Jun 21 '21 at 00:49
  • Well, if one wants to chronicle the rise of American Radicalism, he or she can go back to the tumultuous 1960's and 1970's which radically transformed many American Colleges and Universities. The Vietnam War protests, the Feminist Movement and other social movements, etc., were very active on many College campuses during those years. However, what makes Political Correctness, "newer" and distinguishable than their 60's predecessors, are the "culture wars", in terms of highlighting and centralizing one's ethnic, religious and/or racial identity in our public discourse. Con't.... – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 00:51
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    While there may have been earlier signs of the "culture wars" 40-55 years ago on American college campuses, the PC movement has been gradually attacking and even vilifying the Canon, Western Civilization and the West in general...it unfortunately, has culminated with "Cancel culture " – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 00:53
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    and "wokeness" over the past few years. – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 00:53
  • Philosophy, has been and is a discipline that strove and strives to better understand things from a more idealistic and universalist perspective; it is not a field that is (or should) preoccupy itself with cultural particularities....that belongs to certain Social Sciences-(especially, Anthropology, Sociology, Archeology and History). – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 00:57
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    How is this barely disguised political rant still open on Philosophy SE ? – armand Jun 21 '21 at 03:26

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The core idea behind all of these monikers is that public discourse should be civil, respectful, and non-alienating. That is the basic grounding of all intellectual discussions. Anti-intellectuals want discourse to be violent, laden with emotions, reactive, ignorant, etc., because they gain power when others cede their rationality.

Ted Wrigley
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    Good answer. One should be on alert regarding the rise of anti-intellectualism in our greater public discourse....(and public policy decisions). – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 04:24
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For starters, cancel culture is a barely real phenomenon, or at most is little more than a novel form of boycotting. There is nothing definitively anti-philosophical about boycotting. As for being "woke," well, that's the goal of philosophy, after a fashion, after all! Major philosophers have often been at the forefront of "woke"-like stances (for their time): Bertrand Russell convened a major investigation into US atrocities during the Vietnam War, and going back much further, Kant held the conquest of the Americas to be morally wrong.

More broadly, though, the "opposite" of particularity is not universality but generality. And identifying philosophy with generality would not be to identify the philosophical perspective very well. A quick look at the table of contents in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy should testify very well to that fact: it's not like the only articles there are about general logic and abstract metaphysics, but we see entries on individual philosophers, philosophies of individual kinds of science, reflection on individual questions (like about whether holes are real), analysis of fairly particular moral topics, and so on and on.

Particularity and generality form a broad spectrum (anyone familiar with biological taxonomies can appreciate this fact). And I think that PC/woke/cancel-culture/virtue-signalling attitudes, to the extent that these are real at all in the first place, are not about denying generality altogether, but are about being honest about the difficulty in adopting a truly general perspective, and acknowledging when people falsely claim to portray a general perspective.

Kristian Berry
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    Boycotting is used by the weak against the powerful. Cancel power by contrast is used against the weak. It was used to cost a high school girl her cheerleading scholarship and basically ruin her academic career because two years earlier, she had used a phrase common among black people to express her excitement about getting a driver's license. It was used to get a woman fired and her dog taken away because when threatened by a black man, she called the police and described him as black while he videotaped her. Cancel culture is mean girls gone international, destroying people for fun. – David Gudeman Jun 21 '21 at 02:39
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    I have to disagree with your statement, "cancel culture is barely a real phenomenon". That is simply untrue. Cancel culture is very real and unfortunately, it is proliferating throughout many areas of the American Educational system. There are news reports after news reports-(and they are not all Conservatively based), which document and chronicle the serious problems that Cancel Culture poses in various private educational institutions, as well as some public educational institutions. I am old enough to remember the beginnings of Political Correctness and I am wide awake and am able.... – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 02:49
  • to see the insidious nature and morally objectionable agenda of Cancel culture. – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 02:50
  • To compare the radical views of Immanuel Kant and even Bertrand Russel to today's Cancel culture and wokeness.....is a stretch of the historical imagination. – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 02:52
  • So is "cancel culture" a term that the alleged perpetrators of these supposed atrocities use to collectively refer to themselves or is it a bogeyman term applied to a wide range of situations, events, etc.? – Kristian Berry Jun 21 '21 at 02:57
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    It is neither. The aim of "Cancel culture"-(similar to its Progenitor, "Political Correctness"), is a movement led by ultra-leftist Activists who seek to radically transform (or perhaps even to destroy), Western intellectualism and institutionalism. – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 03:03
  • There is nothing "conciliatory" about Cancel culture and wokeness....it is "on the march". – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 03:05
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    Ooooh, a conspiracy theory, I love it. – Kristian Berry Jun 21 '21 at 03:05
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    Cancel culture is definitely not a "conspiracy theory"....it is very real and if dismissed or disregarded, you may be bitterly surprised by its policy successes. – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 03:07
  • Look, members of QAnon spent years trying to recruit me. I know a conspiracy theory when I see it. – Kristian Berry Jun 21 '21 at 03:08
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/126713/discussion-between-kristian-berry-and-alex). – Kristian Berry Jun 21 '21 at 03:10
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    I also know a conspiracy theory when I see it and I am telling you that Cancel culture, is no conspiracy, it is very real. (And I think I will end my comments here; thank you for comments). – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 03:10
  • (One quick point...the word, "Universality"....IS the opposite of "Particularity"). – Alex Jun 21 '21 at 03:24
  • Further comments are supposed to be in chat as per site policy. – Kristian Berry Jun 21 '21 at 03:26
  • @DavidGudeman: Harvey Wrinstein was cancelled. Fox News is constantly trying to cancel people, and ideas. The right relies on a victim complex, as found in research linking conservative views to greater perception of threats. It's politics about binding together to face an out-group enemy - real, or far more often, imagined. References & more here https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/82345/can-we-say-that-human-beings-are-behaving-more-and-more-like-machines/82351#82351 – CriglCragl Jun 21 '21 at 12:04
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    @CriglCragl, thanks for sharing your political spitefulness with us, but maybe it would be more appropriate on a political site. – David Gudeman Jun 22 '21 at 00:01