“Academic freedom is not a self-justifying good. It must be oriented to some end that merits the support of those who finance it. One end of liberal education is the advancement of knowledge, which requires diverse opinions and the freedom to challenge orthodoxy. But another is to preserve and transmit a social and cultural inheritance. This is true if the transmission encourages challenges to the tradition as well.
The mere expansion of knowledge understood as information without an accompanying sense of philosophical wisdom and moral limitation is unable to justify itself or prevent its own abuse. Theodore Roosevelt, perhaps before the Progressive virus—one of whose symptoms is hyper-rationalism—fully infected him, explained: “There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility.”
This quotation speaks to the problem that seems to be endemic today in so much of higher education – a lack of a philosophical ‘North Star’ that guides and orientates the academic scholarship at universities and colleges. The transmission of our culture’s bedrock values, Classical Liberalism, seems to have been mostly replaced by a cadre of activist academics that seek not to preserve and strengthen our society, but rather ruthlessly criticize and pull apart that values that make higher education possible in the first place.
A better balance must be struck.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
4 comments
January 10, 2024 at 8:09 am
tildeb
Beneath academic freedom rests the liberal principle of freedom of speech. Both are under attack. Specific examples of offence – like in the article – are used to justify the suppression and/or censorship. This is the trap. What is need is a bedrock understanding of what freedom of speech means so that one can avoid being seduced into becoming an envoy for censorship. (Is there a better source than Mill’s clear explanation of what this is than presented in On Liberty?) Because academic freedom rests on this principle of free speech, understanding the principle allows us to then see how it works for academia.
What I’m seeing is that to combat illiberalism, many people presume the response is therefore ‘liberal’. And this is what I’m reading in the above article. It’s not. It’s still illiberal (an easy way to spot anti-free speech is asking , “Who decides?”) when it conflicts with the principle of supporting free speech.
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January 10, 2024 at 12:01 pm
Steve Ruis
As usual, another comment on academic freedom which betrays a lack of any understanding of what it is. Academic freedom is not a blank check for professors. What is does is prevent persecution stemming from political reasons. That is all.
Academic freedom is not an offshoot of free speech, either. It just prevents teachers from being punished for their political stances outside of the classroom.
When I was teaching, I could be fired if I didn’t teach what was posted as the designated content of my course. If I got off on a tangent and started to teach ethics or religion instead of chemistry, I would be reprimanded post haste and if I kept it up, I would be fired.
Academic freedom has nothing to do with teaching ethics. For that I suggest you consult The Statement on Professional Ethics adopted in 1966 by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
As the AAUP states (since 1915, modified in 1940), in part, “Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject. Limitations of academic freedom because of religious or other aims of the institution should be clearly stated in writing at the time of the appointment.”
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January 11, 2024 at 12:37 am
ta
Nah. Even if academic freedom is not self-justifying good, the fact that the attack from conservative politicians forced university presidents to resign is clearly a moral hazard. As always, the context is important.
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January 21, 2024 at 1:34 pm
The Arbourist
@ta
University presidents that plagiarize have no business being university presidents. I’m glad some politicians finally decided to hold people accountable for their actions/ or lack thereof.
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