{"id":128869,"date":"2021-07-21T10:32:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T08:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=128869"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:43","slug":"academic-freedom-you-should-always-be-open-to-a-better-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/07\/21\/academic-freedom-you-should-always-be-open-to-a-better-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic freedom: ‘You should always be open to a better idea’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can researchers, scientists and academics still say whatever they want to? Academic freedom has come increasingly under fire, and not just from radical posts on Twitter, philosopher Peter-Paul Verbeek warns.<\/p>\n

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Peter-Paul Verbeek<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u2018You\u2019re not allowed to say anything anymore\u2019 is the cry of those on the right of the spectrum. Universities are said to be hotbeds of left-wing activists who try to silence anyone who doesn\u2019t sing along in the \u2019woke\u2019 choir on climate change, open borders, equal opportunities and antiracism.<\/p>\n

Others, meanwhile, are warning against intimidation tactics deployed by the extreme right: from anonymous hate campaigns on social media to out-and-out threats by putting stickers on people\u2019s front doors. Or they attack neoliberal and colonialist ideologies.<\/p>\n

This calls for close analysis, University of Twente\u2019s philosopher Peter-Paul Verbeek maintains. Verbeek has recently been appointed chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Research Practice of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).<\/p>\n

Letters to Heads of Government<\/h2>

This committee had at one time been founded to support threatened or imprisoned scientists and academics outside the country. The KNAW sends letters to foreign government leaders about academics and researchers who are being oppressed. But academic freedom is also increasingly under pressure within the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Academic freedom means that people are free to carry out their research and to teach without any form of censorship. \u201cOf course their work must be subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism\u201d, Verbeek says. \u201cCriticism is an important part of scientific method.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018I think it\u2019s regrettable if we call that \u2019woke\u2019, because then the discussion is over\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Freedom seems to be under fire from both right and left at the moment. Crudely put: right versus woke. \u2018You\u2019re not allowed to say anything anymore\u2019 versus \u2018Words hurt\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt first glance, this is a wonderfully interesting place to start a debate, isn\u2019t it? Recently, there has been more and more criticism of an implicit bias in culture and education. I think it\u2019s regrettable if we call that \u2019woke\u2019, because then the discussion is over. Vice versa, it obviously doesn\u2019t help if you get hysterical about telling everyone that they have to be more careful about choosing their words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are university lecturers now supposed to be minutely weighing every word they utter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think things have gotten that far, it looks to me more like a rhetorical strategy to be crying out \u2018You can\u2019t say anything anymore\u2019. It\u2019s a way to attract attention. But we have to remain alert: if academics start censuring themselves, that\u2019s also a threat to academic freedom. The same holds, by the way, if governments intervene in the way in which people carry out their research. When dealing with such issues, the answer always lies in scientific method, which ought to give you enough space to do your research even if others disagree with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think that\u2019s a strong enough answer when researchers are being out-and-out intimidated and threatened?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to confront intimidation and threats directed at academics. When the limit of the acceptable has been breached, we have to close ranks, advise those who have been targeted and help them report such incidents to the police. But that is actually a legal issue that doesn\u2019t really have much to do with academic or scientific research.\u201d<\/p>\n

When does it have something to do with academic or scientific research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cScientific method demands that you maintain an open mind and assent to better ideas. But we need to have a critical debate to get there, as well as giving people space to make their own choices. The KNAW has been warning, for example, that too much government funding goes to financing projects, at the cost of free academic research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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