Critical Dogmatism: Academic Freedom Confronts Moral and Epistemological Certainty

DOI10.1177/1478929920942069
Date01 August 2021
AuthorColin Wight
Published date01 August 2021
Subject MatterSymposium: Free Speech and Academic Freedom
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929920942069
Political Studies Review
2021, Vol. 19(3) 435 –449
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929920942069
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Critical Dogmatism: Academic
Freedom Confronts Moral and
Epistemological Certainty
Colin Wight
Abstract
Academic freedom is one of the most important principles of the modern university. Yet, defenders
of academic freedom, and the associated concept of free speech, are now often projected as being
either aligned with or enabling, right-wing views. This is a puzzling development. Academic freedom
is typically understood to be a set of principles that protect academics from external – primarily
state – interference. In this article, I examine this puzzling development and argue that academic
freedom is a higher order value than free speech and that as such, it requires greater protections.
Second, the biggest dangers to academic freedom today, at least in democratic societies, are
coming from within the academy. Underlying these self-inflicted attacks on academic freedom is a
deeper set of disagreements about the concept of truth and the production of knowledge.
Keywords
academic freedom, free speech, truth
Accepted: 10 June 2020
Introduction
On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be banned or forbidden. No viewpoint or message
may be deemed so hateful or disturbing that it may not be expressed. . . . An institution of higher
learning fails to fulfill its mission if it asserts the power to proscribe ideas – and racial or ethnic
slurs, sexist epithets, or homophobic insults almost always express ideas, however repugnant.
Indeed, by proscribing any ideas, a university sets an example that profoundly disserves its
academic mission (AAUP’s 1994 report On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes).
Academic freedom is one of the most important principles of the modern university.
Principles of academic freedom are enshrined in various documents, some of the most
important being the American Association of University Professors statements of 1915
and 1940 (AAUP, 1915 and 1940), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) 1992 conference on Academic Freedom and University
The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Corresponding author:
Colin Wight, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2006.
Email: colin.wight@sydney.edu.au
942069PSW0010.1177/1478929920942069Political Studies ReviewWight
research-article2020
Symposia and New Ideas

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