Abstract
Academic freedom has often been defended in a progressivist manner: without academic freedom, creativity would be in peril, and with it the advancement of knowledge, i.e. the epistemic progress in science. In this paper, I want to critically discuss the limits of such a progressivist defense of academic freedom, also known under the label ‘argument from truth.’ The critique is offered, however, with a constructive goal in mind, namely to offer an alternative account that connects creativity and academic freedom in a way that goes beyond mere reference to epistemic progress and involves reference to the freedom to think independently as the freedom we mean when we point to creativity and when we point to academic freedom. The resulting causal independence account is not only epistemologically stronger than a progressivist account, it also allows to counter the curbing of academic freedom in the name of progress. The latter becomes key, for instance, when authoritarian political regimes limit or negate academic freedom with reference to an epistemic progress suitably defined for that regime.
Highlights
In this paper, I will analyze the connection between creativity and academic freedom in a way that diverges from the usual way of linking them via the concept of progress
This is the challenge that progressivist justifications of academic freedom face and it is the challenge that this contribution aims to answer by focusing on how creativity and academic freedom relate independently of the concept of progress, i.e. by asking what kind of freedom we mean when we talk about creativity and when we talk about academic freedom
The core positive claim is that we can decouple the defense of academic freedom from reference to progress since the freedom we mean when we talk about creativity or academic freedom is in both cases a specific kind of causal independence that can be realized in the freedom to criticize
Summary
I will analyze the connection between creativity and academic freedom in a way that diverges from the usual way of linking them via the concept of progress. I will discuss creativity and academic freedom as two kinds of freedom that both refer to a causal independence of the mind. This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Creativity in Art, Science & Mind Guest Editors: Adrian Currie, Anton Killin
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