Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Academic Freedom
This Spike article about academic freedom and tolerance is well worth reading. I'll have notes on it when I have a spare five minutes. Offhand, I'd say that it doesn't remind me much of the universities that I've attended. On the other hand, I've never been anywhere as politically engaged, and specifically engaged to the left as Brown Universtiy, which is mentioned here. My undergraduate education was at a very tradtional southern university that was a lot more conservative than Brown- out Chancellor was Henry Kissinger, for example, and our commencement speaker was Margaret Thatcher. Mall University was quite radicalized in the 60s; however it's fairly apolitical now. Something like %3 of our students voted this week, if that gives you any idea of the atmosphere. So, I'm not really experienced with the sort of campus in which politically incorrect speech is shut down. On the other hand, I do know the silencing argument style more generally, and I'll get to some thoughts on that when I have a free five minutes!
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1 comment:
You cite a fine article which puts the fraudulence of the post modern left in its proper context.
Having begun as a real leftist( a Marxist), it disappoints me to see the universities disavow the education that any thinker is due, right or left.
These phony leftists have no other radical motive than to deny what was just said whatever the subject-that is deconstruction; their effluvium has brought their delta to a standstill.
Mill was quite right in putting ideas to the test through argument, something that is not tolerated in the liberal arts, especially philosophy, anymore.
Best regards and good luck in your study.
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