WEBVTT NOTE 8. The Denier of Academic Freedom 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Chapter 8. The Denier of Academic Freedom 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:12.000 More crocodile tears have been shed over the issue of academic freedom than perhaps any other. 3 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Academics are possibly more eloquent on this freedom than any other topic receiving their attention. 4 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:25.000 In the eyes of some, it seems to be equated with the very basis of Western civilization. 5 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:30.840 Hardly a day passes without indignant statements from the American Civil Liberties Union over 6 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:35.800 some real or imagined violation of academic freedom. 7 00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:41.260 And all this seems pale in comparison with the anger of the labor unions of professional 8 00:00:41.260 --> 00:00:44.240 academics and teachers. 9 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:49.080 From the name itself, academic freedom would seem to be innocuous enough. 10 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:53.560 Certainly, academics, like everyone else, should have freedom. 11 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:58.760 Freedom of speech, freedom to travel, freedom to take or leave a job, the usual freedoms 12 00:00:58.760 --> 00:01:01.040 that everyone enjoys. 13 00:01:01.040 --> 00:01:05.360 But that is not what is meant by the phrase academic freedom. 14 00:01:05.360 --> 00:01:11.280 Instead, it has a very special meaning, the freedom to teach the subject matter in whatever 15 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:18.320 form the academic wishes to teach it, despite any wishes to the contrary his employer may 16 00:01:18.320 --> 00:01:19.320 harbor. 17 00:01:19.320 --> 00:01:31.320 Therefore, academic freedom prohibits the employer from firing the teacher, as long as he teaches the subject matter, no matter how objectionable the teaching is. 18 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:36.320 Now this is a very special and spectacular doctrine. 19 00:01:36.320 --> 00:01:43.320 Consider what would happen if it were applied to almost any other occupation, sanitation work, or plumbing. 20 00:01:43.320 --> 00:01:49.800 Plumber's freedom would consist of the right to install pipes and plumbing equipment in 21 00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:55.400 a way the plumber thought best. What if a customer wanted his plumbing done in a way 22 00:01:55.400 --> 00:02:00.480 which differed with the plumber's professional judgment? Without the doctrine of plumber's 23 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:06.400 freedom, the plumber would, of course, be free to refuse the job. But under the doctrine 24 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:11.800 of plumber's freedom, he would not have to turn it down. He would have the right to take 25 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:29.180 Taxi Driver's Freedom would guarantee to drivers the right to go where they wanted to go, regardless 26 00:02:29.180 --> 00:02:33.260 of where the paying customer wanted to be taken. 27 00:02:33.260 --> 00:02:38.520 Waiters' Freedom would give the waiter the right to decide what you will eat. 28 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:44.160 Why should not plumbers, waiters and taxi drivers have a vocational freedom? 29 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:47.440 Why should it be reserved for academics? 30 00:02:47.440 --> 00:02:53.680 Basically, the difference which is said to exist between these vocations and the academics 31 00:02:53.680 --> 00:03:00.560 is that the academics require free inquiry, untrammeled rights of expression and the right 32 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.540 to pursue thoughts wherever they may lead. 33 00:03:04.540 --> 00:03:10.300 This claim and this distinction is, of course, made by the academics. 34 00:03:10.300 --> 00:03:17.080 In addition to being objectionably elitist, this argument also misses an important point, 35 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:23.420 one which is not concerned with the question of what is involved in intellectual activity. 36 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:31.100 It is the impropriety of vocational freedom in upholding the employee's right to a job 37 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:38.580 on the basis of purely formalistic requirements, regardless of the wishes and desires of customers 38 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:41.100 and employers. 39 00:03:41.100 --> 00:03:47.120 If there is an acceptance of the elitist argument which claims that the intellectual professions 40 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:53.380 must be granted a freedom inappropriate to other professions, what of others which qualify 41 00:03:53.380 --> 00:03:55.360 as intellectual? 42 00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:01.520 What about medical freedom for doctors, legal freedom for lawyers, artistic freedom for 43 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:03.920 artists, etc.? 44 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:08.540 Medical freedom might give doctors the right to perform operations, regardless of whether 45 00:04:08.540 --> 00:04:10.660 the patient approved. 46 00:04:10.660 --> 00:04:16.660 Would it prevent patients from firing doctors whose procedures they disapproved of? 47 00:04:16.660 --> 00:04:21.600 Would artist freedom give artists the right to charge for art which is neither wanted 48 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:24.400 nor appreciated? 49 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:31.020 Following the way academic freedom operates, these questions must all be answered affirmatively. 50 00:04:31.020 --> 00:04:36.160 One shudders at the possibility that these freedoms be granted to chemists, lawyers, 51 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:38.500 or politicians. 52 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:43.800 What is really at issue in the question of academic freedom is the right of individuals 53 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:47.240 to freely contract with one another. 54 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:52.840 The doctrine of academic freedom is a denial of the sanctity of contract. 55 00:04:52.840 --> 00:04:59.160 The odds are against the employer, and freezes the situation in favor of the academic. 56 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:05.400 It resembles nothing so much as a medieval guild system, with its restrictions, protectionism 57 00:05:05.400 --> 00:05:09.040 and the fostering of a caste system. 58 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:14.960 Thus far it has been implicitly assumed that the schools and universities are privately 59 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:15.960 owned. 60 00:05:15.960 --> 00:05:21.120 The contention has been that academic freedom amounts to a violation of the rights of these 61 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:33.600 in the United States are controlled by the government, that is, they are stolen property. 62 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:38.200 Academic freedom, therefore, may be defended on the ground that it is perhaps the only 63 00:05:38.200 --> 00:05:45.780 device by which control over the educational system may be wrested away, at least in part, 64 00:05:45.780 --> 00:05:50.580 from the ruling class or power elite which controls it. 65 00:05:50.580 --> 00:05:56.280 Assuming that this claim is true for the sake of argument, there is a powerful defense of 66 00:05:56.280 --> 00:05:58.560 academic freedom. 67 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:04.140 In this view, it would not be the innocent student-consumer who is being defrauded by 68 00:06:04.140 --> 00:06:10.260 claims to academic freedom, for it is not the innocent student-consumer who is presently 69 00:06:10.260 --> 00:06:17.240 Theory being forced to maintain an employment and academic whose services he does not wish. 70 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:23.100 It would be the non-innocent ruling class which is being so forced. 71 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:29.660 If the ruling class theory is correct, academicians with views favorable to the ruling class have 72 00:06:29.660 --> 00:06:32.800 nothing to gain from academic freedom. 73 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.380 They will be retained in their jobs in any case. 74 00:06:36.380 --> 00:06:42.500 It is the academic with views that are not amenable to the ruling class, and he alone 75 00:06:42.500 --> 00:06:44.180 who benefits. 76 00:06:44.180 --> 00:06:50.460 He gains from academic freedom because it prevents ruling class employers from dismissing 77 00:06:50.460 --> 00:06:56.660 him on ideological or other non-formalistic grounds. 78 00:06:56.660 --> 00:07:03.280 Academic freedom as such can be looked upon as a fraud and theft because it denies individuals 79 00:07:03.280 --> 00:07:10.320 rules the right of free and voluntary contracts, but that a bad means can also be used for 80 00:07:10.320 --> 00:07:13.560 good ends should occasion no surprise.