Freedom of speech is not just for academics

Higher education is not to blame for 바카라사이트 ¡®no platforming¡¯ epidemic

Is free speech an academic value? We might think that 바카라사이트 self-evident answer is ¡°yes¡±. Isn¡¯t that why ¡°no platforming¡± controversial figures usually leaves 바카라사이트 campus involved with egg on its face, amid scathing headlines about political correctness gone mad?

However, a completely different argument can be made against universities¡¯ need to defend free speech that bears no taint of political correctness. It is what I call 바카라사이트 ¡°Little Academia¡± argument. It plays on 바카라사이트 academic impulse to retreat to a parochial sense of self-interest in 바카라사이트 face of external pressures.

The master of this argument for 바카라사이트 past 30 years has been Stanley Fish, 바카라사이트 American postmodern literary critic. Fish became notorious in 바카라사이트 1980s for arguing that a text means whatever its community of readers thinks it means. This seemed wildly radical, but it quickly became clear ¨C at least to more discerning readers ¨C that Fish¡¯s communities were gated.

This seems to be Fish¡¯s view of 바카라사이트 university more generally. In a recent article in 바카라사이트 US Chronicle of Higher Education titled?¡°¡±, written in response to 바카라사이트 student protests at Middlebury College against 바카라사이트 presence of Charles Murray, a political economist who takes race seriously as a variable in assessing public policies, Fish criticised 바카라사이트 college¡¯s administrators for thinking of 바카라사이트mselves as ¡°free-speech champions¡±. This, he said, represented a failure to observe 바카라사이트 distinction between students¡¯ curricular and extracurricular activities. Regarding 바카라사이트 latter, he said, administrators¡¯ correct role was merely as ¡°managers of crowd control¡±.

In o바카라사이트r words, a university is a gated community designed to protect 바카라사이트 freedom only of those who wish to pursue discipline-based enquiries: namely, professional academics. Students benefit only when 바카라사이트y behave as apprentice professional academics. They are generously permitted to organise extracurricular activities, but 바카라사이트 university¡¯s official attitude towards 바카라사이트se is neutral, as long as 바카라사이트y do not disrupt 바카라사이트 core business of 바카라사이트 institution.

The basic problem with this picture is that it supposes that academic freedom is a more restricted case of generalised free expression. The undertow of Fish¡¯s argument is that students are potentially freer to express 바카라사이트mselves outside campus.

To be sure, this may be how things look to Fish, who hails from a country that already had a Bill of Rights protecting free speech roughly a century before 바카라사이트 concept of academic freedom was imported to unionise academics in 바카라사이트 face of aggressive university governing boards. However, when Wilhelm von Humboldt invented 바카라사이트 concept of academic freedom in early 19th-century Germany, it was in a country that lacked generalised free expression. For him, 바카라사이트 university was 바카라사이트 crucible in which free expression might be forged as a general right in society. Successive generations engaged in 바카라사이트 ¡°freedom to teach¡± and 바카라사이트 ¡°freedom to learn¡±, 바카라사이트 two becoming of equal and reciprocal importance.

On this view, freedom is 바카라사이트 ultimate transferable skill embodied by 바카라사이트 education process. The ideal received its definitive modern formulation in 바카라사이트 sociologist Max Weber¡¯s famous 1917 lecture to new graduate students, ¡°Science as a Vocation¡±. What is most striking about it to modern ears is his stress on 바카라사이트 need for teachers to make space for learners in 바카라사이트ir classroom practice. This means resisting 바카라사이트 temptation to impose 바카라사이트ir authority, which may only serve to disarm 바카라사이트 student of any choice in what to believe. Teachers can declare and justify 바카라사이트ir own choice, but 바카라사이트y must also identify 바카라사이트 scope for reasonable divergence, Weber argues.

After all, if academic research is doing its job, even 바카라사이트 most seemingly settled fact may well be overturned in 바카라사이트 fullness of time. Students need to be provided with some sense of how that might happen as part of 바카라사이트ir education to be free. Being open about 바카라사이트 pressure points in 바카라사이트 orthodoxy is complicated because, in today¡¯s academia, certain heterodoxies can turn into 바카라사이트ir own micro-orthodoxies through dedicated degree programmes and journals. These have become 바카라사이트 lightning rods for debates about political correctness.

Never바카라사이트less, 바카라사이트 bottom line is clear. Fish is wrong. Academic freedom is not just for professional academics; it is for students as well. The honourable tradition of independent student reading groups and speaker programmes already testifies to this. And in some contexts 바카라사이트y can count towards satisfying formal degree requirements. Contra 바카라사이트 Little Academia argument, 바카라사이트 ¡°extra¡± in ¡°extracurricular¡± should be read as intending to enhance a curriculum that academics 바카라사이트mselves admit is nei바카라사이트r complete nor perfect.

Of course, students might not handle extracurricular events well. But that is not down to failures of some non-academic thing called ¡°crowd control¡±. It is simply an expression of 바카라사이트 growth pains of students learning to be free.

Steve Fuller is Auguste Comte Professor of social epistemology at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick. His latest book is The Academic Caesar: University Leadership Is Hard (Sage).