Abstract
The article distinguishes between the various arguments traditionally offered as justifications for the principle of academic freedom. Four main arguments are identified, three consequentialist in nature (the argument from truth, the democratic argument, the argument from autonomy), and one nonconsequentialist (a variant of the autonomy argument). The article also concentrates on the specific form these arguments must take in order to establish academic freedom as a principle distinct from the more general principles of freedom of expression and intellectual freedom.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Whether academic freedom should also extend to the aprofessional activities of academics is a contested issue, especially in the United States, where AAUP doctrine refers to the rights of academics writing and speaking “as citizens” (Byrne 1989; Rabban 1993; Shils 1993; Finkin and Post 2009). I have discussed this matter in detail elsewhere (Andreescu forthcoming).
The assessments on this matter vary wildly. Bok’s (2003) conclusions concerning the presumable threat of commercialization in contemporary American higher education remain moderately optimistic and seem to me to be among the most thoughtful and balanced.
Including protection against compelled disclosure of scientific data (O’Neil 1996).
The argument from truth may be extended to cover this function as well, as the university is the institution where numerous citizens acquire the habits of thought and the methods necessary for pursuing truth.
Gutmann speaks of the tyranny of the majority because she ascribes the wider goal (protection against tyranny in general) to primary and secondary education, whose chief task is to inculcate the basic democratic virtues.
The democratic argument was sometimes used, less persuasively in my opinion, to contend that universities have a duty as corporate bodies to express opinions on matters of pressing social and political interest (Wallerstein 1971).
It should also be noted here that arguments from and for truth and democracy often overlap. One concept is frequently employed order to justify the other. Nonetheless, truth and, respectively, democracy do not exhaust the justification of the other term: we desire truth for its democratic consequences, but not only for that reason; similarly, we want democracy because it is advantageous in the attainment of truth, but also for other important reasons.
In Germany, the rise of the (non-democratic) administrative state was contemporaneous with the advent of modern higher education. Administrative science (the so called Kameralwissenschaft) was introduced at arguably the first modern university, Halle. (Tribe 1984).
By, for instance, Greenawalt (1989), the structure of whose essay is loosely followed in this article.
References
American Association of University Professors. (1993). General report of the Committee on academic freedom and tenure. In W. Van Alstyne (Ed.), Freedom and tenure in the academy (pp. 393–406). Durham: Duke University Press.
Andreescu, L. (forthcoming). Individual academic freedom and aprofessional acts. Educational Theory.
Biesta, G. (2007). Towards the knowledge democracy? Knowledge production and the civic role of the university. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 26, 467–479.
Birnbaum, R. (1988). How colleges work: The cybernetics of academic organization and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Blanshard, B. (1973). In E. Freeman (Ed.), The uses of a liberal education. LaSalle: Open Court.
Bok, D. (1982). Beyond the Ivory Tower: Social responsibilities of the modern university. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bok, D. (2003). Universities in the marketplace: The commercialization of higher education. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Byrne, J. P. (1989). Academic freedom: A ‘special concern of the first amendment’. Yale Law Journal, 99, 251–340.
De George, R. T. (1997). Academic freedom and tenure: Ethical issues. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Diekema, A. (2000). Academic freedom and Christian scholarship. Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans.
Dworkin, R. (1996). We need a new interpretation of academic freedom. In L. Menand (Ed.), The future of academic freedom (pp. 187–198). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Fallon, R. H. (1993). Two senses of autonomy. Stanford Law Review, 46, 875–905.
Finkin, M., & Post, R. C. (2009). For the common good: Principles of American academic freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Fish, S. (1989). Doing what comes naturally: Change, rhetoric, and the practice of theory in literary and legal studies. Durham: Duke University Press.
Glenn, C. L. (2000). University mission and academic freedom: Are they irreconcilable? European Journal for Education Law and Policy, 4, 41–47.
Gortner, H. (1991). Ethics for public managers. New York: Greenwood Press.
Greenawalt, K. (1989). Free speech justifications. Columbia Law Review, 89, 119–155.
Gutmann, A. (1999). Democratic education (Revised edition). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Habermas, J. (1987). The idea of the university. Learning processes. New German Critique, 41, 3–22.
Haverhals, B. (2007). The normative foundations of research-based education: Philosophical notes on the transformation of the modern university idea. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 26, 419–432.
Hofstadter, H. (1955). Academic freedom in the age of the university. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hofstadter, H. (1963). Anti-intellectualism in American life. New York: Knopf.
Hofstetter, M. J. (2001). The romantic idea of a university: England and Germany, 1770–1850. London: Palgrave.
Horwitz, P. (2007). Universities as first amendment institutions: Some easy answers and hard questions. UCLA Law Review, 54, 1497–1558.
Kant, I. (1992). The conflict of the faculties—Der Streit der Fakultäten. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
MacIntyre, A. (1990). Three rival versions of moral inquiry: Encyclopaedia, genealogy, and tradition. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Merton, R. K. (1979). The normative structure of science. In R. K. Merton (Ed.), The sociology of science: Theoretical and empirical investigations (pp. 267–279). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Metzger, W. P. (1961). Academic freedom in the age of the university. New York: Columbia University Press.
Mill, J. S. (1977). On liberty. In J. Robson (Ed.), Collective works of John Stuart Mill (Vol. 18). Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
O’Neil, R. M. (1996). A researcher’s privilege: Does any hope remain? Law and Contemporary Problems, 59, 35–49.
O’Neil, R. M. (1997). Free speech in the college community. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Pettit, P. (1993). Consequentialism. In P. Singer (Ed.), A companion to ethics (pp. 230–240). Oxford: Blackwell.
Polanyi, M. (1947). The foundations of academic freedom. The Lancet, 249, 583–586.
Press, E., & Washburn, J. (2001). The kept university. In A. H. Teich, S. D. Nelson, C. McEnaney, & S. J. Lita (Eds.), AAAS science and technology policy yearbook (pp. 293–318). Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Pritchard, R. M. O. (1998). Academic freedom and autonomy in the United Kingdom and Germany. Minerva, 36, 101–124.
Rabban, D. M. (1993). A functional analysis of ‘individual’ and ‘institutional’ academic freedom under the first amendment. In W. Van Alstyne (Ed.), Freedom and tenure in the academy (pp. 227–301). Durham: Duke University Press.
Raz, J. (1986). The morality of freedom. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rhodes, F. T. (2001). The creation of the future: The role of the American university. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Rorty, A. O. (1972). Dilemmas of academic and intellectual freedom. In E. Pincoffs (Ed.), The concept of academic freedom (pp. 97–110). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Rorty, R. (1996). Does academic freedom have philosophical presuppositions? In L. Menand (Ed.), The future of academic freedom (pp. 21–42). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Royce, J. (1891). Present ideals of American university life. Scribner’s Magazine, 10(3), 376–388.
Salzman Kurzweg, A. (1999). Live art and the audience: Toward a speaker-focused freedom of expression. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 34, 437–485.
Sartorius, R. (1972). Tenure and academic freedom. In E. Pincoffs (Ed.), The concept of academic freedom (pp. 133–158). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Shils, E. (1993). Do we still need academic freedom? The American Scholar, 62, 187–209.
Shils, E. (1997). The order of learning in the United States: The ascendancy of the university. In P. G. Altbach (Ed.), The order of learning: Essays on the contemporary university (pp. 1–38). New Brunswick: Transaction.
Simons, M. (2006). ‘Education through research’ at European universities: Notes on the orientation of academic research. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 40, 31–50.
Slaughter, S. (1998). Academic freedom and the state: Reflections on the uses of knowledge. The Journal of Higher Education, 59, 241–262.
Tribe, K. (1984). Cameralism and the study of government. Journal of Modern History, 56, 263–284.
Van Alstyne, W. (1975). The specific theory of academic freedom and the general issue of civil liberty. In E. Pincoffs (Ed.), The concept of academic freedom (pp. 59–84). Austin: University of Texas Press.
Volokh, E. (2004). Academic freedom and slippery slopes. http://volokh.com. Accessed 4 Feb 2005.
Wallerstein, I. (1971). Academic freedom and collective expressions of opinion. The Journal of Higher Education, 42, 713–720.
Weinstein, J. B., & Wimberly, C. (2001). Secrecy in law and science. Cardozo Law Review, 23, 1–31.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Andreescu, L. Foundations of Academic Freedom: Making New Sense of Some Aging Arguments. Stud Philos Educ 28, 499–515 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-009-9142-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-009-9142-6