The Sobering Case of a Serial Plagiarist
During my time in England working on a PhD (1999-2001) I developed several acquaintances within the academy including the philosopher Martin Stone. The last I’d heard, Stone had left England for a professorship in Belgium, but I hadn’t heard anything of him in years. So a few days ago I plugged “Martin Stone” and “philosophy” into a google search engine to see where he was at.
The results were shocking.
The stage is nicely set by Sally Sharif in her article “Where Does Disdain for Plagiarizers Stream From?” Sharif asks, “Who was Martin Stone?” And then comes the shocking reply:
“He is the Voldemort of the Institute of Philosophy: his name is not to be said. One utters it and a hush falls upon the audience. He was Distinguished Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy before being forced to resign. What he did has often been described as an act that shook the world of scholarship. In 2010, KU Leuven retracted its affiliation with Stone’s publications, after it was discovered that …”
Good gosh man, what was discovered? What’d he do? Murder? Kidnapping?
Sharif continues:
“… almost all of them [Stone’s publications, that is] had been partially or wholly copied from works of other authors. This includes the Ph.D. thesis of a member of the Finnish Parliament.”
Whoa. Wait, are you serious? Indeed, it turns out that the brilliant young(ish) scholar was, in fact, a serial plagiarist. Three academics that led the charge in chronicling Stone’s crimes compiled some of the evidence in a meticulously researched paper titled “40 Cases of Plagiarism.”
And yeah, that includes the above-mentioned member of the Finish Parliament, Ilkka Kantola, from whose 1994 thesis Stone plagiarized “tens of pages … identical or nearly identical….” (See “Plagiarism probe sees UK scholar quit Belgian post“.)
I’m struck by the brazenness of the crime. I’ve never knowingly plagiarized anyone, and if I had I’d likely be wracked with anguish at being found out. This kind of flagrant deception cries out for psychoanalysis.
Anyway, I’m not sure what to do with this information except to reproduce my shock here and issue a warning as a new academic year begins. Whether it comes through carelessness or deception the crime is the same: the presentation of the thoughts, words, or ideas of someone else as your own is theft. And whatever you may think, it ain’t worth it.
