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Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (New Forum Books Book 61)

Keith E. Whittington

3.22 · Rating details · 50 ratings · 10 reviews

Why free speech is the lifeblood of colleges and universities

Free speech is under attack at colleges and universities today, with critics on and off campus challenging the value of open inquiry and freewheeling intellectual debate. Too often speakers are shouted down, professors are threatened, and classes are disrupted. In Speak Freely, Keith Whittington argues that uni

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Kindle Edition, 223 pages

Published April 10th 2018 by Princeton University Press

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Jun 23, 2018 Bob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: higher-education

Summary: A case for the vigorous defense of free speech as essential to fulfilling the mission of the university in the face of both institutional and outside attempts to suppress objectionable speech.

"Free speech on college campuses is perhaps under as great
a threat today as it has been in quite some time. We are not,
of course, on the verge of returning to the rigid conformity of
a century ago, but we are in danger of giving up on the hard won
freedoms of critical inquiry that have been wrested f Summary: A case for the vigorous defense of free speech as essential to fulfilling the mission of the university in the face of both institutional and outside attempts to suppress objectionable speech.

"Free speech on college campuses is perhaps under as great
a threat today as it has been in quite some time. We are not,
of course, on the verge of returning to the rigid conformity of
a century ago, but we are in danger of giving up on the hard won
freedoms of critical inquiry that have been wrested from
figures of authority over the course of a century."

So contends Keith E. Whittington in this rallying cry to defend free speech on university campuses. Whittington discusses the challenges to free speech arising from free-floating forms of calls for "trigger warnings and safe spaces," the cries to ban "hate speech" from public discourse, protests whose purpose is not dissenting from the speech of others but obstructing it, restraints or bans on student groups and outside speakers advocating objectionable ideas, and attacks on the academic and speech freedom of faculty.

His fundamental contention is that freedom of speech is essential to the mission of the university, which he defines as "producing and disseminating knowledge." Freedom of inquiry, rigorous discourse, disagreement and persuasion are all aspects of this process, and the protections of freedom of speech are essential for universities to flourish in this mission. A common element to both the mission of the university and a rigorous defense of free speech is a commitment to truth-seeking.

Having stated this contention, he surveys the development of a tradition of free speech over the last several centuries, both in its political expression tracing back to Jefferson and the refusal to permit authorities to define and censor "bad" speech and the philosophical tradition of John Stuart Mill upholding freedom of thought and conscience. He then considers the challenges to this freedom of speech, already noted above, including a number of recent instances in the last decade, notably the efforts to suppress Charles Murray from speaking at Middlebury College, and the injury to the faculty moderator that ensued. He also calls attention to the banning of religious groups who do not permit students to lead who do not share their beliefs, thus excluding the views of these groups from the public square.

In this last instance, I would have liked to seem a stronger recognition of how protecting the freedom of people with a particular viewpoint to associate is essential to sustaining their freedom to advocate that viewpoint, whether in line or at variance with the university orthodoxy. I would have liked a clearer connection to be drawn between the institutional forms of suppression of free speech that occur in universities, and efforts by students or outside groups to do the same, to which those same university leaders often object. In many instances, students are using the means at their disposal to restrict certain forms of speech, mirroring the more "refined" ways institutions suppress objectionable speech through policies, procedures, and pressures. Students are often simply doing what they have been taught.

Nevertheless, the author's contention is crucial that all forms of speech, short of speech that is directly threatening harm or incites violence, ought to be protected, and channeled toward real deliberation and persuasion. I saw an instance of this recently where a university president, under pressure to dis-invite a speaker who made some impolitic statements, refused to do so and invited students to engage the speaker with their questions about his statement, and also to set up other university-supported discussions countering the speaker's viewpoint. The president used this instance as a "teachable moment" of what it meant to live up to the school's "Code of Love and Honor" that includes these affirmations:

I respect...
the dignity, rights, and property of others and their right to hold and express disparate beliefs.

I defend...
the freedom of inquiry that is the heart of learning.

This, for me was an example of the personal and institutional backbone necessary to sustain the speech freedom Whittington, I think rightly, believes vital to the mission of our colleges and universities. Whittington notes that this may be costly, when controversial speakers make appearances. Equally, his book seems to me to be a cry for colleges and universities to examine their own culture, and how institutional efforts to censor objectionable or unpopular points of view undermine the very mission of higher education. If colleges and universities indeed believe that inquiry, rigorous discourse, persuasion through logical and reasoned discourse, and appeals to evidence are the stuff of truth-seeking, not just in higher education, but in a liberal democracy; then they should not only defend those who seek to "speak freely" but eschew any efforts to substitute institutional power plays for the deliberative truth-seeking that is supposedly at the heart of its mission.

____________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ...more

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Sep 02, 2018 Joelle rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book was assigned as a Summer Read by my university. While it’s main argument is solid and oft repeated in public debates about Campus culture, it fails to offer an systemic explanation for the present moment and hard evidence to support The claimed prevalence of the problem. The debate over the state of speech on college campuses relies to heavily on politically charged anecdotes and fails to explain the how and why of student, faculty and administrator behaviors—-the incentive structure a ...more

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Jul 12, 2018 Claire rated it really liked it · review of another edition

DISCLAIMER: I was required to read this as a pre-read before entering university.

Good enough read. Well-researched and well-spoken, but rather simplistic and dry writing. This may be because he needs to appeal to all of the incoming freshman class, but I wish it had been slightly more sophisticated in language. Also, pretty short! I feel like he could have gone into much better detail. I almost felt like I was reading a propaganda piece -- the writing was that structured. The entire book was cle ...more

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Oct 12, 2018 Jayme rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you’ve ever wondered what constitutes free speech or the mission of a university, this is a good book for you. The author gives a good “jumping off point” for discussion and thought.

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Jul 23, 2018 Robert rated it liked it

Like Lakoff's book, Don't Think of an Elephant, this is hard to swallow but absolutely necessary to heed. While he finally gets around to discussing the finances of free speech, he too easily glosses over the situation posed by the costs imposed by free speech. Sure, allow diverse speakers to speak on campus, but he lacked detail on how much those speakers might cost the campus and should all students be required to pay those costs. His primary answer, in the interests of free inquiry, would be, ...more

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Aug 12, 2018 Rob Schmults rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“Embracing free speech is easy if the speech never seems very challenging. It is easy to listen to pleasing ideas and affirmations of our own prior beliefs. It is much more difficult to learn to tolerate those with whom we disagree and who espouse ideas we find preposterous, repugnant, or even dangerous....(but) it is through controversy that we can make progress, often in the most unexpected ways.”

Personally I learned much more in school from people with different ideas and points of view from ...more

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Sep 01, 2018 Daniel Te rated it liked it · review of another edition

I commend Princeton Professor Whittington for tackling this topic, because this is certainly quite controversial. I appreciate the amount of research he did into various incidents involving free speech and academic staff on college campuses. As for the book itself, I think it was reasonably argued, although not mind-blowing in any sense. Also, not that big of a deal, but he does take a few shots at Yale professors and students (I know Princeton and Yale have a rivalry, but a little much maybe?). ...more

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Jan 27, 2019 Yannis Karakozis rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book became insanely repetitive from the very beginning without offering any interesting insights. I dropped it after 40 pages of reading it. I would give it a 1-star, but I give it a 2-star review simply because it might have something to offer in the pages I did not read.

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