The Value and Limits of Academic Speech: Philosophical, Political, and Legal Perspectives

366 Pages·2018·2.025 MB·English

by  Donald Alexander Downs, Chris W. Surprenant

The Value and Limits of
Academic Speech
Free speech has been a historically volatile issue in higher education. In recent
years, however, there has been a surge of progressive censorship on campus.
This wave of censorship has been characterized by the explosive growth of
such policies as “trigger warnings” for course materials; “safe spaces” where
students are protected from speech they consider harmful or distressing;
“micro-aggression” policies that often strongly discourage the use of words
that might offend sensitive individuals; new “bias-reporting” programs that
consist of different degrees of campus surveillance; the “dis-invitation” of
a growing list of speakers, including many in the mainstream of American
politics and values; and the prominent “shouting down” or disruption of
speakers deemed inconsistent with progressive ideology. Not to be outdone,
external forces on the right are now engaging in social media bullying of
speakers and teachers whose views upset them.
The essays in this collection, written by prominent philosophers, political
scientists, sociologists, and legal scholars, examine the issues at the forefront
of the crisis of free speech in higher education. The contributors address the
broader historical, cultural, legal, and normative contexts of the current crisis,
and take care to analyze the role of “due process” in protecting academic
freedom and individuals accused of misconduct. Additionally, the volume
is unique in that it advances practical remedies to campus censorship, as
the editors and many of the contributors have participated in movements to
remedy limitations on free speech and open inquiry. The Value and Limits of
Academic Speech will educate academic professionals and informed citizens
about the phenomenon of progressive censorship and its implications for
higher education and the republic.
Donald Alexander Downs is the Alexander Meiklejohn Professor of Political
Science, Law, and Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
and the Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science
at the University. He is also the director and co-founder of the University’s
Wisconsin Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy.
Chris W. Surprenant is an associate professor of philosophy at the University
of New Orleans, where he is the founding director of the Alexis de Tocqueville
Project, an interdisciplinary center for research and programming focusing on
issues at the intersection of ethics, individual freedom, and the law.
Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
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The Ethics and Epistemology of Making Disagreement Public
Edited by Casey Rebecca Johnson
106 New Directions in the Philosophy of Memory
Edited by Kourken Michaelian, Dorothea Debus, and Denis Perrin
107 A Pragmatic Approach to Libertarian Free Will
John Lemos
108 Consciousness and Physicalism
A Defense of a Research Program
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109 The Value and Limits of Academic Speech
Philosophical, Political, and Legal Perspectives
Edited by Donald Alexander Downs and Chris W. Surprenant
The Value and Limits of
Academic Speech
Philosophical, Political, and Legal
Perspectives
Edited by Donald Alexander Downs
and Chris W. Surprenant
First published 2018
by Routledge
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Contents
ContentsContents
Acknowledgement viii
Introduction 1
DONALD ALEXANDER DOWNS AND CHRIS W. SURPRENANT
1 Philosophy, Controversy, and Freedom of Speech 21
PETER SINGER
2 Why Academic Freedom? 31
BRIAN LEITER
3 Free Speech and Ideological Diversity on American
College Campuses 47
KEITH E. WHITTINGTON
4 Are Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech
Congruent or Opposed? 64
JAMES R. STONER, JR.
5 Freedom of Expression at the Private University 78
JOHN HASNAS
6 Outside Funding to Centers: A Challenge to Institutional
Mission? 96
JASON BRENNAN
7 Harm: An Event-Based Feinbergian Account 115
ANDREW J. COHEN
vi Contents
8 The Difference Between Being Offended and Taking Offense 136
MICHAEL JOEL KESSLER
9 The Necessity of Offense 155
SHANE D. COURTLAND
10 ‘Words that Wound’ in the Classroom: Should They Be
Silenced or Discussed? 167
CHRISTINA EASTON
11 Speech and War: Rethinking the Ethics of Speech Restrictions 187
BURKAY T. OZTURK AND BOB FISCHER
12 Growing-Up Disturbed 205
FRANK FUREDI
13 Don’t Make Me Laugh: Speech Codes and the
Humorless Campus 223
EDWARD JOHNSON
14 Sex, Liberty, and Freedom of Expression at the American
University 235
EVAN GERSTMANN
15 Skepticism About Title IX Culture 248
J.K. MILES
16 From Academic Freedom to Academic Responsibility:
Privileges and Responsibilities Regarding Speech on Campus 266
ARIANNE SHAHVISI
17 Campus Speech, Diverse Perspectives, and the
Distribution of Burdens 285
RYAN MULDOON
18 When Free Speech Is False Speech 299
SARAH CONLY
19 The Plausibility of Abhorrent Views, and Why it Matters 311
CALUM MILLER
Contents vii
20 Safeguarding Academic Freedom on Campus Through
Faculty Governance 330
RIMA NAJJAR KAPITAN
List of Contributors 348
Index 353
Acknowledgement
AcknowledgementAcknowledgement
This publication volume would not have been possible without a gener-
ous grant from the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason Uni-
versity. We are incredibly thankful for their support of this project and
the scholars who have contributed to this volume, as well as their support
for other scholars working on a wide range of projects in the area of free
speech and open inquiry.
Introduction
Donald Alexander Downs and Chris W. SurprenantIntroduction
Donald Alexander Downs and
Chris W. Surprenant
This book addresses a matter that has provoked much attention and
debate in recent years: the status and fate of free speech, open inquiry,
and academic freedom in higher education. While the recent string of
inviting, and then either disinviting, protesting, or otherwise interfering
with a controversial speaker being brought to campus has drawn pub-
lic attention to this issue, at its heart is a more fundamental concern
about the appropriate function (or functions) of colleges and universities
as institutions and what types of rules or safeguards must be in place
to allow them to fulfill this aim. In this discussion, we (the editors of
this volume) are not impartial observers, having taken speech-libertarian
positions in writing and action. But our motivation for gathering together
this collection of essays is to draw more attention to a discussion that
seems to be going in the wrong direction. And as advocates of free speech
and intellectual diversity, we feel obligated to include a variety of points
of view from respected scholars and practitioners whose diverse ideas
can help citizens in liberal democracies come to more informed conclu-
sions regarding the present controversy. Rather than staking out our
own positions, in this Introduction we strive to place the debate in a
broader historical context while addressing the major points raised by
our contributors.
Most universities and colleges remain publicly committed to long-
established liberal principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech.
Princeton’s Keith E. Whittington captures the essence of what we will call
the “liberal model” in his contribution to this volume:
Freedom of thought is the lifeblood of a university. Universities are
dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. In
order to fulfill that mission, universities must nurture an environ-
ment in which scholars can ask difficult questions and follow their
evidence and analysis wherever they lead and teachers can expose
their students to the unvarnished truth and press them to reexamine
their most fundamental commitments.