An Authoritative Word on Academic Freedom

by E Wayne Ross on November 25, 2008

New York Times: An Authoritative Word on Academic Freedom

More than a few times in these columns I have tried to deflate the balloon of academic freedom by arguing that it was not an absolute right or a hallowed principle, but a practical and limited response to the particular nature of intellectual work.

Now, in a new book β€” β€œFor the Common Good: Principles of American Academic Freedom,” to be published in 2009 β€” two distinguished scholars of constitutional law, Matthew W. Finkin and Robert C. Post, study the history and present shape of the concept and come to conclusions that support and deepen what I have been saying in these columns and elsewhere.