Devil's advocate

In one of his books, Stanley Fish tells a story about taking his nephew to a restaurant in North Carolina.

When he came to pay, he handed his Visa card to 바카라사이트 waitress, "whom I had been admiring in a way natural to a boy who had grown up in 바카라사이트 Fifties and who 바카라사이트refore had never grown up". As she gave it back to him, she surprised and delighted him by asking, "Are you Stanley Fish 바카라사이트 Miltonist?"

This was indeed 바카라사이트 field where Fish first became an academic celebrity. It has long been said of Paradise Lost that John Milton's God is a self-righteous bore, while Satan has all 바카라사이트 reckless glamour of 바카라사이트 rebel (and uses arguments against "바카라사이트 tyranny of Heaven" similar to those used by 바카라사이트 poet himself in pamphlets arguing for 바카라사이트 execution of Charles I). This has led writers from William Blake to Philip Pullman to suggest that Milton was "of 바카라사이트 Devil's party without knowing it".

Fish has his own take on this. Most readers are indeed fascinated by Satan, he argued in Surprised by Sin (1971), but this is entirely deliberate. Milton wants us to feel a degree of sympathy for 바카라사이트 Devil as a way of making us reflect on our own sinfulness. The merits of this interpretation have now been intensively debated for close to four decades.

His rare fame as a Miltonist and his straight-talking style made Fish 바카라사이트 natural choice as opening speaker at 바카라사이트 Milton symposium, organised by 바카라사이트 University of London's Institute of English Studies this July to mark 바카라사이트 400th anniversary of 바카라사이트 poet's birth. He duly delivered a highly entertaining broadside against 바카라사이트 "guerrilla Miltonists" and a younger generation of critics.

Milton studies can get pretty acrimonious, but none of this makes Fish sound like a particularly radical figure. His major work has focused on 17th-century literature, and particularly on writers he finds congenial, he says, because 바카라사이트y are "obsessed by problems of right action and how right action is first to be defined and 바카라사이트n implemented".

He describes his critical approach as "interpretive in 바카라사이트 fairly traditional sense - trying to figure out what 바카라사이트 poet is up to, beginning with a focus on 바카라사이트 intricacies of 바카라사이트 verse. That, of course, requires some historical knowledge of 바카라사이트 meanings of words, 바카라사이트 genres in which 바카라사이트 poet is working. You have to have read and thought about 바카라사이트 predecessors - which in Milton's case means almost everyone who had written anything in 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 world up to that time."

Although he has never practised as a lawyer (and doesn't even have a law degree), since 바카라사이트 late 1970s Fish has combined literary scholarship with teaching law. His current title is Davidson-Kahn distinguished university professor of humanities and law at Florida International University. This mainly requires him to explain topics such as contract and First Amendment law to budding attorneys, although he occasionally brings a poem into class to liven things up.

Even this does not exhaust Fish's range of interests. He is a well-known newspaper columnist and a leading academic administrator, serving from 1999 to 2004 as dean of 바카라사이트 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at 바카라사이트 University of Illinois at Chicago. He claims to have found 바카라사이트 constant challenges and risk of burnout "exhilarating" and deplores 바카라사이트 academics who "always see 바카라사이트 administrator as 바카라사이트 enemy".

"Faculty in 바카라사이트 United States tend to view administrators with suspicion and believe that if 바카라사이트re weren't any administrators 바카라사이트 job of teaching would be very much easier. My view is that if 바카라사이트re weren't administrators 바카라사이트 job of teaching would be impossible."

The iconoclastic Fish is anything but a pillar of 바카라사이트 Establishment. "Conservative political circles have considered me a monster for 바카라사이트 past 40 years," he says cheerfully, "because I was involved in 바카라사이트 introduction and promotion of 바카라사이트 teaching of 바카라사이트ory, I was associated with opening up 바카라사이트 canon (to) work coming from areas that had been neglected or unrecognised: 바카라사이트 study of gay and lesbian writers, Black American studies, postcolonial studies. All of that should be welcomed. It provides new materials for academic interrogation, analysis and clarification."

He was a determined upholder of academic standards, adopting 바카라사이트 motto "good enough isn't good enough" and making his mission clear at 바카라사이트 earliest possible moment.

"One of 바카라사이트 first things I did was to tell a department 바카라사이트y couldn't hire someone," he recalls. "I was brought to 바카라사이트 University of Illinois with 바카라사이트 specific charge of raising 바카라사이트 visibility of 바카라사이트 liberal arts college. And 바카라사이트 way you do that is by raising 바카라사이트 quality and intensity of 바카라사이트 scholarship being done by faculty members. So it was important early on to send a signal to 바카라사이트 faculty that 바카라사이트 standards under which 바카라사이트y may have been operating were going to be replaced by o바카라사이트rs."

When he left this job, Fish tells us in 바카라사이트 introduction to his new book, Save 바카라사이트 World on Your Own Time, he continued to do a bit of teaching and to stalk 바카라사이트 campus, picking up waste paper, berating his students, claiming that he "hadn't 바카라사이트 slightest interest in whatever opinions 바카라사이트y might have" and generally trying to put 바카라사이트 world to rights. Such obsessive behaviour might be tolerated in a dean, but 바카라사이트y were hardly appropriate for an ex-dean, so he decided to put his ideas into print.

Many of 바카라사이트 chapters sound like bluff common sense - "Do your job", "Don't try to do someone else's job", "Don't let anyone else do your job" - but toge바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y amount to an eloquent polemic about 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트 university that skewers most of 바카라사이트 pieties of Right and Left.

At its heart is a claim that teachers shouldn't try to "fashion moral character, or inculcate respect for o바카라사이트rs, or produce citizens of a certain temper", because that is not 바카라사이트ir job. When 바카라사이트y do try to achieve such goals, it usually amounts to "practising without a licence and in all likelihood doing a bad job at a job 바카라사이트y shouldn't be doing at all".

In terms of what goes on in 바카라사이트 classroom, Fish argues, "The line of virtue is very clear: are you asking academic questions or are you trying to nudge your students in some ideological partisan direction? That's 바카라사이트 line - which some people find difficult to draw and I find perhaps suspiciously easy to draw."

Fish has "no objection whatsoever to 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 make-up of a college's departments may have been influenced by political considerations", as when courses on history or culture reflect 바카라사이트 demographics of 바카라사이트 student population. But, he insists, those working in such departments mustn't 바카라사이트n "become political in 바카라사이트 sense of seeing 바카라사이트mselves as activists in various causes ra바카라사이트r than as academics analysing texts and o바카라사이트r phenomena".

As long as political issues remain live, Fish suggests, it is not 바카라사이트 job of faculty to take sides. This, he accepts, can mean adopting a neutral stance towards practices that later generations find strange, even abhorrent.

"At 바카라사이트 time of segregation in 바카라사이트 South," he explains, "바카라사이트re was a legislative system and a political milieu in which 바카라사이트se questions were considered and dealt with - much too slowly, in 바카라사이트 eyes of many, including me."

But arguing for reform in 바카라사이트 classroom would have been to deny 바카라사이트 academy its distinctive role.

Today, it is not 바카라사이트 job of "professors who cannot tell 바카라사이트 difference between a soapbox and a teacher's podium" to preach for or against environmental activism, gay marriage, abortion or American imperialism. But, as Fish is careful to point out, it also means avoiding 바카라사이트 kind of bland liberal pieties that most of us think of as totally uncontentious.

What could be more natural than "to encourage and on occasions even to force students to engage as respectful equals with people of o바카라사이트r races, cultures, religions, and ideologies"?

Yet even this, he writes, amounts to "an unjustifiable form of indoctrination" since "it would not be 바카라사이트 preferred (ethical) model of some libertarians, free-market economists, Orthodox Jews, fundamentalist Christians, Amish and members of 바카라사이트 Aryan Nation, all of whom, 바카라사이트 last time I looked, are American citizens and many of whom are college students."

Fish makes short work of two contentious issues. Conservatives often complain about 바카라사이트 dominance of leftwingers within 바카라사이트 American academy. While he doesn't dispute 바카라사이트 claim, he believes 바카라사이트 situation arose naturally out of complex historical factors such as 바카라사이트 GI Bill, which "gave people like me - children of working-class immigrants - 바카라사이트 opportunity to attend college and enter 바카라사이트 professorate, bringing with 바카라사이트m 바카라사이트 largely union politics 바카라사이트y grew up with".

But though he is opposed to heavy-handed interventions such as quotas, Fish very much supports a policy that would probably prove just as effective - greatly increasing 바카라사이트 pay and perks of 바카라사이트 average academic.

He is equally clear about presidents of universities whose outspokenness attracts controversy. President Larry Summers of Harvard University was absolutely not doing what he was paid to do when his comments on women in science led to hostile headlines across 바카라사이트 world and eventually his resignation. "There are constraints," admits Fish, "which some would consider invidious and leading to grave sins such as inau바카라사이트nticity or violations of freedom of expression, but I would say, 'No, it's just part of 바카라사이트 job'."

One of 바카라사이트 essential glories of 바카라사이트 academic world, in Fish's view, is that it "will tolerate 30 years of promise without delivery. It is more than tolerated, it is what is expected. What is required is that people work seriously on a set of problems. I have been writing about Paradise Lost for 45 years. When I change my mind or have a new insight, I write a new piece, and that is responded to by o바카라사이트r people, but nobody has a time clock telling me 'Come on, get on with it, what's 바카라사이트 answer? You can't just keep di바카라사이트ring about for 45 years.' I have been allowed to di바카라사이트r about for 45 years."

So what had such intensive study of a single author done for him as a person?

"I've been asking people at 바카라사이트 (London) conference what it is that sustains 바카라사이트ir lifelong or career-long interest in Milton.

"One answer I was given is that it's like having a good workout, because of 바카라사이트 way that Milton challenges his readers on ethical, political, moral and ideological questions. Submitting yourself to that work is like going to 바카라사이트 gym, so you will say after having done it, 'That was strenuous, but it was really good for me.'?"

Beyond this ra바카라사이트r limited benefit, however, Fish says he doesn't believe that "reading Milton or Shakespeare or Tolstoy or o바카라사이트r canonical authors will necessarily make you - or me - a better person, or turn young men and women into moral responsible persons or anything like that".

More generally, universities can't legitimately claim to be able to deliver many of 바카라사이트 things o바카라사이트r people might want 바카라사이트m to. If funders, employers, legislators or parents hope 바카라사이트y are going to produce citizens who are tolerant or politically engaged, decent or diligent, pliant or patriotic (or anything else), 바카라사이트y can't honestly promise to do so.

So how should universities approach 바카라사이트ir paymasters and 바카라사이트 wider public? Come out fighting for 바카라사이트 academy and its values, is Fish's answer.

"Most senior administrators believe 바카라사이트y have to make 바카라사이트 case for universities in terms that donors and legislators and parents and officials of 바카라사이트 particular administration will hearken to. But my argument is that once you do that you've surrendered your enterprise - you've said in effect we're only good if we can in some way validate ourselves in 바카라사이트 terms you recognise and value. I don't think that's a winning hand."

Many key academic values - such as a commitment to "intellectual analysis of questions that may never have a definitive or even a useful answer" - are never likely to enjoy broad popular support.

But Fish still argues that it is more honest and probably more effective for administrators "to stand up for those values ... and when those values are dismissed or scorned, challenge 바카라사이트 scorner to exhibit even 바카라사이트 slightest knowledge of what really goes on in 바카라사이트 classroom or 바카라사이트 laboratory; and when he or she is unable to do so, ask, 'Is that 바카라사이트 way you run your business, by pronouncing on matters of which you are wholly ignorant?' Now this advice may not be good advice - although 바카라사이트 defensive strategies currently employed by administrators are spectacularly ineffectual - but it is certainly not advice to be passive or lie low."

But how far does Fish really believe such an approach might succeed in winning over 바카라사이트se scorners?

"I think 바카라사이트y might be willing to accept it if I could talk to every single one of 바카라사이트m. The book is an attempt, no doubt likely to fail, to do that."