Social Sciences and Academic Freedom

Abstract

Academic rights and freedoms, as a distinct variety of human rights and freedoms, seem to follow a similar pathway both in their origins and in their further study. They appear to have emerged in conjunction with the establishment of science as a special form of interaction with the world, which separated from theology in the Middle Ages. The newly created distinctive community of scholars, and later teachers, began to reflect not only on the properties and qualities of the world around them, but also on the properties and qualities of their own corporation, defending intellectual freedom from any encroachments, first by the church, then by the state, and in the modern world by capitalist corporations. It is thus possible to explore the rise of ideas regarding academic freedom as “a freedom stemming from its infringement,” and academic freedom studies as a practical application of advocacy, which develops arguments for academic freedom’s defense, affirms its basic principles, and analyses major threats to it. One can argue that the history of the emergence and development of both academic rights and freedoms and their study is highly amenable to Alan Dershowitz’s hypothesis that the idea of human rights is paradoxically grounded in the history of their violation.

Article in English