One Yale professor is being targeted by an Internet-based posse for alleged sexual harassment and attempted assault on students.

Inside Higher Ed’s Colleen Flaherty files this report.

…An Internet campaign seeking to bring the professor to justice – legally and in ways more abstract – has philosophers talking about and even contributing financially to the cause. Some philosophers also view the campaign as helping to cast sunlight upon the discipline’s own long history of misogyny and sexual harassment. With relatively few women, compared to other humanities disciplines, and possibly due to other structural factors, the discipline has been plagued by such complaints; last year, the American Philosophical Association announced it was forming a committee to study the issue.

Others say the campaign and its tactics are causing irreparable damage, even by insinuation, to the professor’s career, prior to any legal action (although one alleged victim says she reported the professor to Yale, with no real result).

The Internet campaign began last month, when an anonymous graduate student posted an essay on Thought Catalog called “I Had An Affair With My Hero, A Philosopher Who’s Famous For Being ‘Moral.’ ” The author said she was motivated to write after the philosopher lied about the status of his long-term relationship and revealed that he had seduced young women all over the world by promising them fidelity he never intended to give.

…The post did not name the professor or his institution, but speculation quickly focused on one professor at Yale. He declined to comment for this story. While his name is appearing on social media (and no other name is being referenced in regard to these allegations), Inside Higher Ed is not naming him at this time because there is not enough verifiable evidence on the public record to do so….

Following that post, another woman using the pseudonym Lisbeth Mara started crowdsourcing donations on a web site called Fundrazr to retain a forensic psychologist for a potential lawsuit against Yale University. The fund is called “Help us sue the school protecting a known rapist.” Mara reached her $7,000 goal within days. (The name Lisbeth Mara appears to be a play on the name of the anti-hero in the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series of novels, Lisbeth Salander, and that of the actress Rooney Mara, who plays her in the American film based on the books. In the series, the character is the victim of sexual assault and exacts revenge on her perpetrator, her legal guardian.)