Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and Democracy

The course examines connected ideas of free speech, academic freedom, and democratic legitimacy that are still widely shared by many of us but have been subject to skeptical pressures both outside and inside the academy in recent years. The course explores the principled basis of these ideas, how well they might (or might not) be defended against skeptical challenge, and how they might be applied in particular controversies about the rights of students, instructors, and researchers.