Author Profile

Carl Cohen

Carl Cohen has been a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan since 1955. Cohen's interests have focused on issues of practical importance; he has been prominently involved in highly vexed public controversies. He has written and lectured widely on philosophical issues arising from race preference and affirmative action, on the moral status of animals and the uses of animals in biological science, and on the protection of humans, and especially prisoners, serving as voluntary subjects in medical experiments.
For a decade he served as Professor of Philosophy in the University of Michigan Medical School. He has engaged vigorously in controversies over the limitation of free speech, defending the right to express even the most heinous of views, in law reviews and widely read periodicals: The Nation, Commentary, The New York Times, The New England Journal of Medicine, and many others. His books, including the 13th edition of his logic textbook, Introduction to Logic, published in 2008, have been translated into many languages; his major work in political philosophy, Democracy, is widely distributed in China and around the world. Cohen is also an active labor/management grievance arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, and for the State of Michigan.
His most recent book is A Conflict of Principles: The Battle over Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan.

Articles by Carl Cohen

Sep 18, 2015 · Carl Cohen

Affirmative Action Actually Hurts Campus Race Relations

The Supreme Court held, in the 2003 case Grutter v. Bollinger, that it is permissible for universities to give some students preference in admission on the basis of their race. That decision was a serious mistake and it is time to correct it. Grutter’s essential premise is that a racially diverse student body leads to educational benefits for all students. The Court accepted that proposition—but it should not have. There is good reason to doubt that the claimed benefits of diversity in the classroom are even genuine, much less compelling.