Despotic time and truthless science

Abstract

In the first part of the essay, De Gennaro suggests a reading of the so-called ‘digression’ contained in Plato’s Theaetetus. He argues that in this key passage Plato indicates the relation between the fundamental trait of epistēmē and its constitutive condition, namely scholē, whilst describing how that relation is devastated, and what consequences this devastation entails. His thesis is that Plato’s analysis identifies the core of any attack against academic freedom–to wit, the annihilation of time, or scholē, and, as a consequence, of all truthful, truth-bearing practice–as well as the implications which such an attack has for scholarly existence, hence the usefulness of his analysis as a diagnostic reference for the perception of the subversion of academic teaching and research that is presently taking place in scientific institutions on a global scale. The second part of the article illustrates in two examples how that subversion, situated in its epochal context, can be read in light of Plato’s indications. The first example discusses the impact of practices of teaching evaluation on the freedom of teaching, while the second one assesses the implications for the freedom of research of procedures of research evaluation used in calls for competitive research grants.