Zygmunt Bauman rebuffs plagiarism accusation

Bauman is himself confused about the fundamental principles of intellectual property and academic scholarship. Of course ideas and knowledge are not owned by anyone, and it's mischievous of Bauman to frame it that way. What's owned'., as he very well knows from the sales and profits of all his books, and what is at issue here, as we keep telling our students, is the precise expression of ideas. That is not a mere technicality, it goes to the heart of the claim to be the author of a piece of writing. Bauman's words undermine all teachers' efforts to get their students to develop their own writing capacities, and it's important that his position be declared utterly wrong and basically self-interested. It brings shame on the discipline of sociology, and instead of an arrogant assertion of your supposed intellectual superiority, you owe us all an apology, Professor Bauman.

I entirely agree with what Robert van Krieken has written. Bauman's response to these allegations of plagiarism -- a response consisting in obfuscatory abuse directed against a PhD student -- is really despicable.

Ziggy's expertise in plagiarism is a product of plagiarising himself over two decades or more. He's written the same book about 30 times.

As is often seen, when a fairly clear-cut accusation is made from a lower strata, the response of authority is to obfuscate and go on the offensive. The problem invariably goes away, but do those involved go to bed with a clear conscience .... I hope not.