Conclusion
Academic freedom is thus a complex ideal, and I have argued that in many respects it has a more limited application than some of its protagonists seem to believe. Many of the arguments for it, moreover, are not peculiar to academics and universities. We would therefore be well advised to take seriously Eric James' injunction “to think less of universities as having rights to additional and peculiar liberties, and to regard them more as places where the essential liberties of a civilised state find strongest champions, champions, moreover, who by reason of the intellectual strength which they possess, and the intellectual integrity which they defend, have a particular responsibility”.36 But it is beyond rational doubt that the continuation of civilised states as civilised depends on the maintenance of, among other things, academic freedom, and particularly of what I have called scholarly freedom.
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In The Encyclopaedia of Higher Education, Vol. II (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1992), p. 1295, e.g., it is defined by Geoffrey Caston as “the freedom of the individual academic to teach, to do research, and to publish without any outside interference”.
Robert, Jackson, quoted in Kedourie, Elie, Perestroika in the Universities (London: IEA Health and Welfare Unit), p. 4; reprinted in Reports and Documents, Minerva, XXXI (Spring 1993), pp. 76–105.
See the conclusion of. Eustace, Rowland, “A Comment on the Discussion of Conrad Russell's Academic Freedom”, Minerva, XXXIII (Spring 1995), pp. 69–73; and the slightly question-begging comment of Parston, Greg and Albury, David, that “‘Academic freedom’ and ‘institutional autonomy’, for so long the private defences against encroaching governments or religions, are in need of redefinition to render knowledge and learning more publicly accessible” (italics added), The Independent, 31 October, 1995. Throughout this essay I have borne in mind Rowland Eustace's other recent discussions: “Freedom for Academics”. Higher Education Quarterly, XLIII, 3 (1989), pp. 216–228, and “University Autonomy: The 80s and After”, in ibid., XLVIII, 2 (1994), pp. 86–117.
E. g., Searle, John R., The Campus War (New York: World Publishing, 1971), pp. 183–212, and (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972), pp. 169–193; and Bligh, Donald, “Freedoms, Rights and Accountability”, in his edited volume Accountability or Freedom for Teachers? (Guildford: SRHE, 1982), pp. 118–137. See, also, the discussion in Pincoffs, Edmund L. (ed.), The Concept of Academic Freedom (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972), Pt II.
See e.g., the authoritative discussion in Ashby, Eric and Anderson, Mary, “Autonomy and Academic Freedom in Britain and in English-Speaking Countries of Tropical Africa”, Minerva, IV (Spring 1966), pp. 317–364, and in their Universities: British, African, Indian (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966). Also, e.g., Fuchs, Ralph (a former president of the Association of American University Professors), “Academic Freedom: Its Basic Philosophy, Function, and History’, in Baade, Hans W. with Everett, Robinson O. (eds), Academic Freedom. The Scholar's Place in Modern Society (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1984), pp. 1–16.
See Moodie, Graeme C., “The State and the Liberal Universities in South Africa: 1948–1990”, Higher Education, XXVII (1994), pp. 1–40, esp. p. 9.
Russell, Conrad, Academic Freedom (London: Routledge, 1992). See also the discussion of this book in “The Universities Between Their Internal and External Enemies”, Pt I, Minerva, XXXII (Summer 1994, pp. 186–219); Pt II (Autumn 1994), pp. 327–343; and Eustace, R., “A Comment on the Discussion”, op cit.
Baldwin, John W. and Goldthwaite, Richard A. (eds), Universities in Politics (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1972), pp. 1–17.
See, e.g., Brown, Stuart, “Academic Freedom”, in Brown, S.C. (ed.), Philosophers Discuss Education (London: Macmillan, 1975), pp. 205–220, 221–249; Gutman, Amy, “Is Freedom Academic? The Relative Autonomy of Universities in a Liberal Democracy”, in Pennock, J. Roland and Chapman, John W. (eds), Liberal Democracy (Nomos XXV) (New York: New York University Press, 1983), p. 273; and Shils, Edward, “Do We Still Need Academic Freedom?”, Minerva, XXXII (Spring 1994), pp. 79–98.
Edward Shils, in his last article on the subject, seems also to embrace this view when he states that “Academic freedom is the freedom to perform academic actions”, but it is not clear whether he would have accepted that this, at least potentially, is significantly different from his previous stress on the academic role. Minerva, XXXII (Spring 1995), p. 6.
Freedom, 3rd edn (London: Longman, 1967), p. 33.
Reprinted in his Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1969), ch. III; the ideas are further discussed in the introduction thereto.
Ibid., pp. 123, 131.
Ibid., p. 166.
Ibid., p. xlvii.
See Cranston, M., Freedom, op. cit., p. 4.
Though they perhaps underlie the arguments in, e.g., Fisk, Milton, “Academic Freedom in Class Society”, in Pincoffs, E.L. (ed.), The Concept of Academic Freedom, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972), pp. 5–26.
See, esp., Deutsch, Karl, “Strategies of Freedom: The Widening of Choices and the Change of Goals”, in Friedrich, Carl J. (ed.), Liberty (Nomos IV) (New York: Atherton Press, 1962), pp. 301–307; Crocker, Lawrence, Positive Liberty (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1980); Gray, John, “Negative and Positive Liberty”, in Pelczynski, Zbigniew and Gray, John (eds), Conceptions of Liberty in Political Philosophy (London: Athlone Press, 1984), pp. 321–348; Lindley, Richard, Autonomy (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1986); Raz, Joseph, The Morality of Freedom (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986); Young, Robert, Personal Autonomy: Beyond Negative and Positive Liberty (New York: St Martin's Press, 1986); and Brenhart, George G., Political Freedom (London and New York: Routlege, 1991).
Hofstadter, Richard and Metzger, Walter P., The Development of Academic Freedom in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), p. 16.
Hofstadter, Richard and Metzger, Walter P., The Development of Academic Freedom in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), pp. 277–366.
See, e.g., the rather different arguments adduced by Polanyi, Michael, “Scientific Convictions”, in his The Logic of Liberty. Reflections and Rejoinders (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), pp. 8–31, and “The Republic of Science: Its Political and Economic Theory”, Minerva, I (Autumn 1962), pp. 54–73. See also MacIntyre, Alasdair, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry, Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition (London: Duckworth, 1990), esp. pp. 216–236.
Different forms of the argument may be found in, first and foremost, Mill, John Stuart, On Liberty; more recently in Russell, Bertrand, Politics and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for NBL, 1947); or in the writings of Karl Popper.
Snow, C.P., Science and Government (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961).
See Moodie, Graeme C, “The State and the Liberal Universities”, op. cit.
See, e.g., Moodie, Graeme C. and Eustace, Rowland, Power and Authority in British Universities (London: Allen and Unwin; Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1974), esp. chs, IX, X.
“Academic Freedom and the Control of Research”, in Pincoffs, E.L. (ed.), The Concept of Academic Freedom, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972) pp. 237–254.
Ashby, Eric, “Some Problems of Universities in New Countries of the British Commonweath”, Comparative Education, II, I (1965), pp. 1–10. See also Report of the (Robbins) Committee on Higher Education, Cmnd. 2154 (London: HMSO, 1963), §709, p. 230: “We do not regard freedom as a privilege but rather as a necessary condition for the proper discharge of the higher education functions....”
See his The Logic of Liberty, op. cit., pp. 33, 66.
Ibid., p. 45; and “The Republic of Science”, op. cit., pp. 61–67.
For a clear “yes” on this issue see the Chancellor's Lecture by Birley, Robert, Universities and Utopia (Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press, 1965).
See Shattock, Michael, The UGC and the Management of British Universities (Buckingham: SHRE/Open University Press, 1994).
See the excellent discussion in Mazrui, Ali, Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa (London: Heinemann, 1978), pp. 268–281.
I refer to Conrad Russell's book, cited above. It is more surprising, and regrettable, that it seems to succumb to the temptation to exaggerate the claims for academic rule in the way discussed in the previous paragraph.
Ashby, E., “Some Problems of Universities....”, op. cit., and Caston, G., “Academic Freedom”, op. cit.
Ashby, Eric, “Hands off the Universities?” (London: Birkbeck College, 1968), p. 15.
James, Eric, The Universities and the Idea of Liberty (Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press, 1967), p. 6.
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Moodie, G.C. On justifying the different claims to academic freedom. Minerva 34, 129–150 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122897
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122897