Freedom of science

Author:

Fink Gerhard

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of “freedom of science” (“academic freedom”) for the advancement of society and mankind, which, however, is permanently endangered by powerful organisations, groups and individuals, who in pursuit of their one-sided interests are seeking to constrain information about the truth. As a broad term, freedom of science embraces freedom in research, learning, teaching and publication. All of these activities should be dedicated to identifying the truth and learning about the truth. Design/methodology/approach Three theoretical approaches are of importance for framing issues related to freedom of science, which in this paper are integrated into the framework of mindset agency theory: freedom is a value; “freedom” is claimed by agents who pursue specific interests (goals), which might constrain others; and individuals are agents who are interacting with each other within a social system – cooperation, ignorance or conflict. Findings Freedom as a value is at the core of intellectual autonomy. Intellectual autonomy is a necessary condition for innovation and advancement of knowledge. The observable modes of interaction/coexistence among researchers are influenced by individual research goals and by the researchers’ access to resources, which may be deliberately constrained by opponents or other researchers as competitors. Research limitations/implications For further research, which is beyond this paper, the authors can refer to: analyses of challenges of “academic freedom” – in terms of ethics, protection of individual human rights, political pressures and conflicts of interests; the issues of truth, i.e. the impact of fake news and creation of “alternate facts”; and the relation between academic freedom and employment (academic tenure) in present-day societies. Owing to lack of space, this paper cannot deal with the danger emerging from powerful organisations or powerful individuals, who are challenging freedom of science. Social implications If there is no freedom of science then social progress is constrained. If there is no access to right data, decisions will be wrong. Originality/value So far, a comprehensive cybernetic model was not published, which supports systems thinking about scholars and teachers (inter)acting in research organisations.

Publisher

Emerald

Subject

Computer Science (miscellaneous),Social Sciences (miscellaneous),Theoretical Computer Science,Control and Systems Engineering,Engineering (miscellaneous)

Reference42 articles.

1. AAUP (2018a), “About the AAUP foundation”, available at: www.aaupfoundation.org/about-aaup-foundation. (accessed 18 November 2018), 10:40 a.m. or, available at: www.aaup.org/our-programs/academic-freedom/resources-academic-freedom (accessed 18 November 2018), 10:50 a.m.

2. AAUP (2018b), “AAUP's 1915 declaration of principles”, American Association of University Professors, available at: www.aaup-ui.org/Documents/Principles/Gen_Dec_Princ.pdf (accessed 2 November 2018), 10:50 a.m.

3. AAUP (2018c), “1940 Statement of principles on academic freedom and tenure”, available at: www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure (accessed 18 November 2018), 11:00 a.m.

4. AAUP (2018d), “Resources on academic freedom”, available at: www.aaup.org/our-programs/academic-freedom/resources-academic-freedom (accessed 2 November 2018), 11:00 a.m.

Cited by 2 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3