On his book Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech
Cover Interview of January 02, 2019
In a nutshell
Speak Freely provides a succinct, accessible
explanation of the principles of free speech and their relationship to the
workings of a modern university. In contrast to wide-spread polemics about the
free speech crisis on campus, this book tries to offer a fair-minded guide
through the current controversies. It explains why those who are critical of
what they see happening on college campuses should not give up hope on the promise
of universities, and it seeks to persuade those who are part of a campus
community, why they should be committed to liberal tolerance and critical
inquiry.
The book makes the case for why universities are valuable
and why freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry on campus are essential to
sustaining the value of universities. It argues that we should expect and want
universities to be sites of robust debate about controversial ideas. It
contends that fulfilling the truth-seeking mission of a university necessitates
nurturing an environment in which airing disagreement is tolerated and intellectual
diversity is welcomed.
Speak Freely offers a brief account of the core
mission of a modern university as one of advancing and disseminating knowledge.
It explains the relationship between free inquiry and that mission of advancing
the frontiers of human knowledge and lessons we have learned about the dangers
of suppressing ideas. With those principles in hand, it then takes up the kinds
of controversies that have recently roiled college campuses, from the call for
trigger warnings and safe spaces, to the regulation of hate speech, to the
disinvitation of controversial speakers, to the threats to academic freedom.
The book concludes with a warning that universities risk
becoming echo chambers of their own with stifling ideological orthodoxies and
rigid limits on the scope of scholarly inquiry and public debate. Universities
must resist the temptation to tolerate only comfortable conversations and
conventional ideas if they are to realize their own institutional goals and
make a helpful contribution to society at large.
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
In a nutshell
Speak Freely provides a succinct, accessible explanation of the principles of free speech and their relationship to the workings of a modern university. In contrast to wide-spread polemics about the free speech crisis on campus, this book tries to offer a fair-minded guide through the current controversies. It explains why those who are critical of what they see happening on college campuses should not give up hope on the promise of universities, and it seeks to persuade those who are part of a campus community, why they should be committed to liberal tolerance and critical inquiry.
The book makes the case for why universities are valuable and why freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry on campus are essential to sustaining the value of universities. It argues that we should expect and want universities to be sites of robust debate about controversial ideas. It contends that fulfilling the truth-seeking mission of a university necessitates nurturing an environment in which airing disagreement is tolerated and intellectual diversity is welcomed.
Speak Freely offers a brief account of the core mission of a modern university as one of advancing and disseminating knowledge. It explains the relationship between free inquiry and that mission of advancing the frontiers of human knowledge and lessons we have learned about the dangers of suppressing ideas. With those principles in hand, it then takes up the kinds of controversies that have recently roiled college campuses, from the call for trigger warnings and safe spaces, to the regulation of hate speech, to the disinvitation of controversial speakers, to the threats to academic freedom.
The book concludes with a warning that universities risk becoming echo chambers of their own with stifling ideological orthodoxies and rigid limits on the scope of scholarly inquiry and public debate. Universities must resist the temptation to tolerate only comfortable conversations and conventional ideas if they are to realize their own institutional goals and make a helpful contribution to society at large.