Praise for An Unopinionated Introduction to Philosophy
Let's workshop this bitch!
Praise for Dr. Istvan’s textbook An Unopinionated Introduction to Philosophy
The most reader-friendly textbook ever conceived. Dolores Umbridge has won the day!—New Guard Media
No other textbook is as pro-student. It is essential for any instructor who cares to protect all students (rather than merely those arbitrarily deemed to be worthy of protection). Dr. Istvan says it all. “The days of being exclusionary in our protection of students are done. . . Just imagine the horror of seeing your classmate allowed to skip the Greek mythology readings because of their incest references whereas you must push on through repeated mentions of hair, glorious heads of curly hair, that leave you sobbing in desperate struggle not to let your hair-pulling disorder reawaken. Just imagine being in a law class where your professor has cut discussion of rape law as a courtesy to those sensitive to rape and yet has the audacity to go on to discuss food law even when there are students in the room who know people, loved ones even, who have developed cancers from certain additives.”—The Emancipated Student
A straightforward answer to what has proven to be the most abusive trigger for students in recent decades: that merely some of them were being granted protection from triggers!—The New Academy
A one-stop-shop textbook sensitive to the fact that the aggrieved are entitled to recompense and that no aggression is small enough to fail to be macro-aggression.—Counselor Riot
However diligent one is at padding table corners, the only way to ensure no one gets hurt is to remove the tables! Thanks to Safe Space Press we can now say, “If you’re not happy, you’re not paying attention.”—Cancel
Until now I would have said that no single-volume could ever be a one-size-fits-all college textbook. Had I such a textbook when I was in school, a blankness of subtle and soothing cream, my therapist would be out of a job.—Mercy Ott, English professor at Joliet College
The excellence of the fourth edition, which includes a bonus chapter on how to report your professor to authorities, is summarized in the following lines from Dr. Istvan’s moving introduction: “To expose students, in the very safe space of the classroom, to what they might find displeasing is, point blank, for teachers to be unfaithful to their academic obligations. . . A student triggered, triggered in any way, is a student whose attention is being harassed away from learning and reflective thinking.” What is novel about this new edition from Safe Space Press, a press that prioritizes inviting students rather than challenging them, is that it honors an obvious truth that for so many decades educators have lacked the courage to honor: that students deserve to be protected from all triggers if they deserve to be protected from some.—Bipartisan Correctness
I had to report my professor. Hearing the word “scatological” in the classroom, especially from a heterosexual cis-gendered man in red, made me feel unsafe. Traumatized as I was by the word (and not to mention by being made out to feel like officer Karen of the PC police when I found myself so affected by hearing it), I was able to craft an effective letter to administration thanks to the advice laid out in the much-appreciated bonus chapter “Turn Them In NOW.” Let’s just say that my “professor” will no longer be spreading his “teachings.”—Devona Zing, business student at Scarsdale College
My teacher is, or I should say, was a rape-apologist. After I told her how much her classroom environment triggered me, she suggested I was being overly sensitive (or even manipulative). When I kept complaining (out of personal dignity and self-care), she asked me why I continue to stay in the class if it is such a violent place. When I told her that was my business, she suggested I might be secretly enjoying it. “Some of the most traumatized do stay in the class despite the trigger warnings,” she had the audacity to write, “because—much like the rough-sex penchant some develop from early abuse—they are subconsciously turned on by, and seeking out ways to relive, the trauma.” Dr. Istvan’s textbook gave me the voice to report my professor. More importantly, it reminds us all that, personal as triggers are, we should never let trigger-warning professors say that our peculiar triggers do not count. Unless it is just a flagrant ploy to enforce certain norms and values over others—if person A is allowed to opt out of coursework because its talk of Islam triggers person A, then person B is also allowed to opt out of coursework because its sheer difficulty triggers person B.—Anne C., student at McGovern Academy
Dinosaur professors who enabled systemic abuse to continue under the banner of “exposing students to what unnerves them” and of “changing the victimizing language of ‘safe space’ into the empowering language of ‘brave space’” turned out to be right about one thing: censoring offensiveness is a slippery slope. And in the fourth-edition textbook from Safe Space Press, which has slid down all the way to the bottom, students have finally been put first. The only potential negative about the book is that it will undercut so many livelihoods. I am not just talking about the livelihoods of abusive professors (go to michaelistvan.com to see a growing list of such professors, by the way). A book like this purges so many members of the victim category, and so severely bars entrance to the victim category, that those who have been profiting for so long on victim culture—litigators, university officials, and so on—are going to be facing some tough times.—The Invalidated
For decades academic institutions have failed to honor the precedent that students require shelter from what unsettles them. Yes, some textbooks were censored just as some speakers were cancelled. The keyword here is “some.” The exclusionary practice of doing away with merely some textbooks and with merely some speakers, which we have tolerated long enough, is insensitive to the fact that what survives such halfhearted censorship is bound to unsettle someone. The new release from Safe Space Press, a ray of light that boldly strips away practically all course content, is a giant leap toward cancelling the unjustly exclusionary practice of sheltering merely some students. One can only hope that those in positions to invite speakers to campus will get the hint!—Aggrieved Daily
Rocketing beyond all competitors with a mere 100-page textbook that removes virtually all possible sources of trauma, Safe Space Press has brought into reality the full implications of coursework-opt-out practices. And with its bonus chapter, “Turn Them In NOW,” the latest edition goes beyond simply protecting students: it arms them! Providing both a sample letter of grievance as well as a pep talk for those under the misimpression that their grievances are too mild to be worthy of retribution, the bonus chapter will help ensure the termination of all professors failing to prioritize students (not just the adjuncts). The chickens have come home to roost.—Higher Education Network For Welcoming Climates
Never stand for someone invalidating your experience. Your trauma is a trauma. No one has to sanction it as worthy enough for it to count as trauma or for you to retaliate to the fullest extent. “Fragility is grounds not for embarrassment but for entitlement.” That is the message of the fourth edition. As professor Istvan makes clear in the bold and therapeutic chapter “Turn them in NOW,” “Your professor does not have to defend Palestine . . . or show you the secret parts of the human anatomy to be destroying your life! Just as the freshman who was raped a few weeks ago is not ready to face course readings that mention rape, the freshman who witnessed her mother on the deathbed a few weeks ago groaning ‘and and and and and and’ is not ready to face course readings where the word ‘and’ is thrown about as if no big deal (insensitively appearing almost in every sentence).” We are ready for the message. We have been ready for a long time.—Me Too, You Too
This year has proven to be the twilight of dysfunction. First, we learned that Pennsylvania will rename its offensively-named cities (Blue Ball, Intercourse, Climax, Virginville, Moreheadville, Reamstown, Coon Hunter, Honey Hole, Honey Pot, Nazareth). Second, we learned that both New York’s Museum of Sex and Los Angeles’s Museum of Death have been shut down. Third, we learned that Lego, notorious for its insensitivities to various groups, has stopped production of pretty much all sets. Fourth, we learned that even the medical writings of white supremacist John Locke have been banned from higher education along with the disgusting likes of Twain and Melville. Fifth, we learned of a new amendment that will repeal the due process clauses in earlier amendments and so allow more immediate cancelation of offenders. And now the cherry on top: a college textbook from Safe Space Press that leaves nothing to offend our future world leaders. Nothing upsetting is safe from cancellation, even the most entrenched aspects of our cultural legacy!—Margin Wise
Stickering everything with trigger warnings not only failed to protect students (for various reasons expressed in Dr. Istvan’s introduction), it became too cumbersome for professors. How are professors, to give just one example, going to warn those students triggered by trigger warnings themselves? I don’t doubt there are ways: staging a scenario, for instance, where such students can overhear the professor tell someone else how traumatic some found the course content. But surely that is just too much work for professors, work that is unnecessary with thoroughgoing censorship. Besides, how are professors even to know which students are triggered by trigger warnings? The new textbook from Safe Space Press, which goes so far as to blunt the borders of each page so that no one gets cut, streamlines everything.—Susan DeMann, author of Accusations and Perceived Wrongs Spell G.U.I.L.T.: Gutless Uncaring Intellectuals Loving Trauma
The left tried to cancel this. The right tried to cancel that. What was excusable for students to opt-out of according to one faction was not excusable for students to opt-out of according to the other faction. The result? Like bawling children in urine-leaden pampers clutching stuffed animals while their parents warred about how best to raise them, students were forgotten in the middle of enraged disputes concerning how best to shelter them from classroom trauma. Still vulnerable to so many harms and not to mention further traumatized by all the warring taking place “on their behalf,” it was students who lost in the end. That was until a social-worker voice of reason swooped in. “Enough,” Dr. Istvan yelled, directing the factions to look down at their feet to the little child now so desperate to be picked up that its raised arms have let the teddy bear fall to the floor—neglect breeding neglect. But Dr. Istvan does not simply implore us, “Think of the child!” Backed by Safe Space Press, he also supplies the antidote—the very motto of Safe Space Press: censoring, silencing, shaming (taken to the limit)!—Rated Never
Some of us are old enough to remember the days when the efforts to protect students failed to go beyond using euphemism to cover over the unpleasantness of certain realities: “assembly centers” instead of “extermination camps,” or “innovative love” instead of “child abuse,” or “material liberation” instead of “looting,” or “the x in your care” instead of “the x in your possession,” or “manifold glazing” instead of “bukkake,” or “self-loving and self-respecting and self-caring” instead of “sissy and hypersensitive and prudish.” These proved insufficient, of course. Euphemism—as in using the innocuous term “depression” to describe an extreme mental state of destructive darkness, or as in simply calling the ready-to-strike scorpion “buddy”—can make a horror stand out even more forcefully. After pressures to recognize that “student” is a protected category, trigger warnings entered the picture. But these too, even when they successfully alerted students to material that might not be aligned with their own values and ways of speaking, proved to be insufficient. These proved to be insufficient, mere bandages on a deeper problem, since even trauma for which one is prepared counts as trauma, and since there are bound to be triggers for which trigger warnings fail to prepare students, and since there would have to be a trigger warning for everything since everything is a potential trigger. Things drastically improved by allowing students to opt-out of triggering material (instead of being merely notified of it beforehand). Opt-out practices, of course, also proved insufficient at protecting students. After all, students were not allowed to opt-out of everything and, besides, mere description of the material that students were allowed to opt out of, even when augmented with the evasive tool of euphemism, still exposed students at least to the abstract idea of what they were allowed to opt-out of, which was traumatic enough. Professor Istvan’s new textbook, cocooned with the blessings of Safe Space Press, is the fourth step: elimination of almost anything that could offend students. To be sure, room remains for offense. Istvan himself admits that this textbook is not a cure all. “Short of the ‘final solution’ of altogether snuffing out . . . humans,” the textbook must be coupled, so he tells us, with the appropriate painkillers and antidepressants to be thoroughly effective.—Offense Culture
Understanding that even competent revision of materials would leave something offensive in its wake, Safe Space Press has effectively burned it all.—Moral High Ground
A true safe space, which only Dr. Istvan’s textbook makes possible, means a safe space for humans, not for ideas and speech. Dr. Istvan has brought us miles ahead to realizing the beyond-mere-lip-service empathetic classroom environment that bell hooks envisioned so long ago in Teaching to Transgress. “Any radical pedagogy must insist that everyone’s presence is acknowledged. That insistence cannot be simply stated. It has to be demonstrated through pedagogical practices. To begin, the professor must genuinely value every one’s presence. There must be an ongoing recognition that everyone influences the classroom dynamic, that everyone contributes. . . . To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.”—Sue Beatty, author of The Infinite Risks of Higher Learning
Serious emotional reactions to course content signals not that the student needs to go to therapy or prioritize “getting mentally tougher” over “getting an education.” It signals that something is wrong with the course content! “Truth should never interfere with justice!” Thank you Dr. Istvan.—Juan Campbell, student at Northsouthern College
Just as a jogger is prone to take routes other than her preferred one if she is frequently catcalled by construction workers, students harassed in class are prone to avoid participating—or even coming altogether! And guess what such exclusion allows? It allows business to go on as usual: the classroom policy of abuse remains unchallenged when the abused keep their heads low. Dr. Istvan, however, has eliminated all the construction workers and thereby even the mere threat of catcalls!—Humanity Confirmed
Professor Istvan does an excellent job at ridding the classroom of as much mental discomfort as possible. Comfort, however, is not just a mental-emotional matter, but also a physical-spatial matter. In light of the fact that students are not pure spirits, we still have much work to do when it comes to the physicality of the classroom. How can there be just one style of chair for every student, for example? A chair comfy for you, may be unfit for me: too small, too big, too unsupportive, too supportive, or so on. In a classroom setting, students should not be paying attention to their bodies above everything else. And yet when the chair does not fit, when I keep squirming to ease the sciatica pain the chair causes me, guess what? My body comes to the fore in its awkwardness, backgrounding any educational information. Just as much as an uncomfortable course topic, an uncomfortable physical space not only distracts from learning, but also sends the wrong message to students. It sends the message that they are unworthy of being recognized and protected. It sends the message that they are being merely tolerated rather than truly wanted. It sends the message that they are the ones who should be grateful to be there.—Dominant Spaces Down
Thinking it would be impossible to remove all threats of challenge in the classroom, I figured it would be best to call my classroom a “brave space” instead of a “safe space.” The hope in shifting the language was that (1) students would be less on the lookout for what might offend them and (2) that they would be inspired to rise to the challenges that could not be removed. Unfortunately, this strategy backfired. Those who could not handle the topics in the classroom, and the conversations with diverse peers, ended up feeling doubly bad. Given how I had set things up, they were not only threatened by the learning environment, they were now also not brave—they were now also not good enough. Istvan’s textbook made clear to me that my presumption about it being impossible to remove discomfort from the equation was terribly wrong. The textbook alerted me, furthermore, to the fact that the language of “brave space,” as well intentioned as it was in my case, simply allowed me to hide from myself that I was abusing students. It was a moving experience to hear Istvan describe, in his wonderful introduction, how he too was an inadvertent (although, like me, chronic) abuser. It made me feel that my journey as an educator was not doomed. We can all change.—Anonymous teacher at a community college in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
*This piece, which is attached to the textbook in question, was first published in Litro Magazine (2021)