Speaking Truth to Power

Abstract

Chinese and Western universities can only be expected to collaborate in a mutually enriching manner when there exists a shared understanding of the nature and role of the university itself. This chapter aims to contribute to our grasp on the normative dimension to the question of how the university is regarded in the Chinese and Western hemispheres by analyzing Confucian and Kantian views on the role of the scholar in society. Both philosophical traditions consider speaking truth to power to be one of the central tasks of the scholar—not necessarily because those yielding political power are wrong, but because they are human, and so should be counterbalanced by the scholarly community in order to safeguard the hermeneutic openness of the intellectual climate within society. And both thus stress that any viable view on the university nature and role must endorse an unconditional respect for academic freedom in research and higher education.