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Thursday, July 13. 2017

Free speech on campus?


Stanley Fish is a very smart guy and like most such people, he occasionally says silly things.


There is this:  Stanley Fish Says Free Speech is Not an Academic Value. That is correct in a very narrow sense, in the sense of his imagining a monkish medieval university, relatively insulated from society and politics, seeking knowledge, wisdom, and truth. Modern American higher ed is mostly anything but that.


Really, free speech and crazy debate is a fine tool in higher ed, in scientific research, and everywhere else. The highest value in academia? No. In society in general, surely its good outweighs the bad.

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 14:58 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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One might construct elaborate evasions that free speech is not some necessary component in education, in situations where the instructors are vastly farther on than the students. Fee speech doesn't seem to be necessary for kindergarten, for example, and we look askance at parents who want their little darlings to have too much of it during instruction periods.

We have found it to be pretty useful in practice at higher levels, though, haven't we, in places where the receivers of knowledge are at least far enough along to ask for good justifications? It would also seem to be necessary for any egalitarianism in practice, however we might deny it's importance in theory.

No, it's been a useful tool these past few centuries and I think we'd best keep it.
#1 AssistantVillage Idiot (Link) on 2017-07-13 16:05 (Reply)
Meh, he starts with insisting that free speech must be bereft of all decorum and must result in a Hyde Park free-for-all, goes on to highlight and praising academic practices that have resulted in the glorious social sciences or global warming science that we have today and finally insists that "accuracy of speech" is of paramount importance in an academic setting and that therefore any suspect knowledge should be banned.

In addition he seems to have a very idealized view of the university, a magical place where the professors and administration will not engage in politics or suffer from any of the normal human foibles (provided of course that the evil of free speech is kept outside the hallowed halls).

A perfect example of someone living in the Ivory Tower
#2 Freddo on 2017-07-13 16:13 (Reply)
Stanley Fish invented PC like Al Gore invented the Internet, so no surprise that he has no use for free speech in settings of his choice.

This move by the progressive left to devalue free speech is going to backfire on them.
#3 peacelovewoodstock on 2017-07-13 20:40 (Reply)
We need to remind ourselves that the title "professor" originally stood for "professor of the Faith"

They are reverting to their original role of imposing orthodoxy.
#4 Whitehall on 2017-07-14 12:35 (Reply)

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