Debating academic freedom. Educational-philosophical premises and problems

Abstract

In the past years, there has been an intensive discussion on the topic of academic freedom in the university. More precisely, it has been criticized that the university is confronted with a growing intolerance and the request to limit free speech. This contribution takes a case at a German university as point of departure. It shows how the current discussions draw on central figures of the philosophy of Enlightenment. In the first part of the paper, the ideas of free speech following Kant, Mill, and Popper are presented. The second part of the article shows how these positions can also lead to an inversion or instrumentalization of Enlightenment thought. This is illustrated using exemplary statements from the case presented in the beginning of the article. In the third part of the article, the concept of higher education or Bildung will be discussed in relation to academic freedom. The guiding principle is an openness toward a pluralistic discourse that is to be framed by societal analysis, civility, and critique.

Keywords:

• Discourse
• censorship
• criticism
• Bildung
• higher education

Acknowledgment

I express my gratitude to the reviewers of this article for very instructive and helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 According to Kant, the three central university faculties are not oriented toward reason, but rather gravitate around the scripture and canonical books given to them, for example, the Bible. Accordingly, Kant presents the peculiarities of the faculties, which must be directed toward the given circumstances and must therefore restrict the application of reason. For the faculty of philosophy, the following applies: ‘The Faculty of Philosophy is called to stand for the truth of the doctrines that it is to receive or even admit. Thus, it must be free and only under the legislation of reason in this regard, not of government’ (Kant, 1995c, p. 33, transl. CT). The faculty of philosophy is bound to the task of establishing and testing truth (ibid., p. 33ff.). In this function, it becomes a place within the university where truth and science (Wissenschaft) are generated. According to Kant, it is the faculty of philosophy that will inevitably foster enlightenment within the other faculties and society in general.

2 Mill’s revaluation of the principle of freedom drew heavily upon Wilhelm von Humboldt, who believed that the state must give its citizens maximum freedom to develop their particularity and individuality (Humboldt, 1793). Mill prefaced his work with a quotation from Humboldt’s text ‘The Spheres and Duties of Government’.

3 It should be added that Mill restricts his liberal position to those who could be understood as sovereign in body and mind. This excludes children, or non-adults, and, according to Mill, also people with other backward states of development, including ‘barbarians’ (ibid., p. 37).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christiane Thompson

Christiane Thompson is Professor of Theory and History of Education and Bildung at the Department of Education at Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main in Germany. The main areas of her research are philosophy of education, particularly the relation of critical theory and education. Currently, she investigates the changes surrounding academic freedom and the idea of the university in Germany.