Maybe it’s too early to be handing out the Koufax, but I’ll be surprised (pleasantly, to be sure!) if I read any post I think is better in the next 11 months. Here’s a small sample:<\/p>\n
THE PRINCIPLE OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM stipulates that “teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties”\u009d; it expressly insists that professors should have autonomy from legislatures, trustees, alumni, parents, and ecclesiastical authorities with regard to their teaching and research. In this respect it is one of the legacies of the Enlightenment, which sought…successfully, in those nations most influenced by the Enlightenment…to free scientists and humanists from the dictates of church and state. And it is precisely that autonomy from legislative and religious oversight that helped to fuel the extraordinary scientific and intellectual efflorescence in the West over the past two centuries; it has also served as one of the cornerstones of the free and open society, in contrast to societies in which certain forms of research will not be pursued if they displease the General Secretary or the Council of Clerics. But today, the paradox of these legislative “academic bills of rights”\u009d is this: they claim to defend academic freedom precisely by promising to give the state direct oversight of course curricula, of departmental hiring practices, and of the intellectual direction of academic fields. In other words, by violating the very principle they claim to defend.<\/p><\/div>\n
There’s more – much, much <\/em>more<\/a>. Sit down with a cup of coffee and read the whole thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maybe it’s too early to be handing out the Koufax, but I’ll be surprised (pleasantly, to be sure!) if I read any post I think is better in the next 11 months. Here’s a small sample: For the first time … Continue reading