Critical Dogmatism: Academic Freedom Confronts Moral and Epistemological Certainty

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.