Research article
The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom
The professor, the political activist, and the professional on the tightropes of culture wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of academic freedom
Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, nr 2(43)/2025, s. 136-153
English
Abstract
Today, academic freedom is increasingly contested amid intensifying culture wars and political polarisation, both within and beyond university walls. Traditional liberal and critical defences of academic freedom—grounded in universal rights, public good, or transformative critique – appear conceptually fragile and normatively overstretched. This paper reconstructs and critically evaluates Stanley Fish’s deflationary and professionalist conception of academic freedom, as developed in Versions of Academic Freedom. Drawing on Fish’s neopragmatist and anti-foundationalist framework, the paper argues that academic freedom cannot be defended by appealing to abstract ideals or external social functions, but only by reference to the immanent logic of disciplinary practice. Fish’s model posits that academic freedom is the limited freedom to perform professional tasks – teaching and research – according to internal standards of scholarly rigour, not a licence for personal expression or political activism. While his approach offers a coherent and context-sensitive alternative to foundationalist accounts, the paper argues that it is insufficient to address the ethical and political challenges of contemporary academia. The paper proposes that defending academic freedom today requires both Fish’s realism about professional constraints and a critical awareness of the political forces shaping knowledge production – an uncomfortable balancing act on the tightrope of post-foundational thought.
Keywords
- academic freedom
- professionalism
- neopragmatism.
References
13 reference entries
References
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Fish S., Versions of academic freedom: From professionalism to revolution, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2014.
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Rorty R., Does academic freedom have philosophical presuppositions?, “Academe”, Nov.–Dec. 1994, vol. 80, no. 6, pp. 52–63.
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Thomson I.T., Culture Wars and Enduring American Dilemmas, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2016.
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Publication information
Issue data
Issue nr 2(43)/2025
- Pages
- 136-153
- Published
How to cite
Bibliographic description and verified export formats.
Format AFPiFS
J. Łakomy, The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom, „Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej” nr 2(43)/2025, s. 136–153, DOI: 10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136
ACM
[1] Jakub Łakomy. 2025. The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom. AFPiFS 2(43) (2025), 136–153. https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136
ACS
(1) Łakomy, J. The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom. AFPiFS 2025, No. 2(43), 136–153. https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136.
APA
Łakomy, J. (2025). The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom. Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, 2(43), 136–153. https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136
ABNT
ŁAKOMY, Jakub. The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom. Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, n. 2(43), p. 136–153, 2025.
Chicago
Łakomy, Jakub. “The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom.” Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, no. 2(43) (2025): 136–53. https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136.
Harvard
Łakomy, J. (2025) “The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom,” Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, 2(43), pp. 136–153. Available at: https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136.
IEEE
[1] J. Łakomy, “The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom,” AFPiFS, no. 2(43), pp. 136–153, 2025, doi: 10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136.
MLA
Łakomy, Jakub. “The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom.” Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, no. 2(43), 2025, pp. 136–53, https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136.
Turabian
Łakomy, Jakub. “The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom.” Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, no. 2(43) (2025): 136–53. https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136.
Vancouver
1. Łakomy J. The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom. AFPiFS. 2025;2(43):136–53. doi:10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136
OSCOLA
Jakub Łakomy, ‘The Professor, the Political Activist, and the Professional on the Tightropes of Culture Wars: Stanley Fish’s Versions of Academic Freedom’ (2025) 2(43) AFPiFS 136 <https://doi.org/10.36280/afpifs.2025.2.136>.