On Academic Freedom. Commentary on Ronald Dworkin’s Approach

Patryk Kupis — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 21:03:13 +0000

Dr Paweł Jabłoński

University of Wrocław

English abstract: Academic freedom of expression today is caught in the crossfire of many intense culture wars. Traditional liberal defences of free expression and freedom of speech seem to be insufficient. This paper argues that we need a fresh theoretical lens to understand and solve these conflictual situations in which university teachers often find themselves. Adopting an analytical and philosophical approach grounded in legal theory, my paper uses Stanley Fish’s neopragmatist, anti-foundationalist framework to reconceptualize academic freedom of expression. The central thesis of my article is that academic freedom is not an absolute individual right to say anything one pleases but a context-bound freedom defined by academia’s internal norms and purposes. In contrast to liberal theories that invoke universal principles, such as Mill’s “marketplace of ideas” or broad “First Amendment” rights, Fish’s perspective insists that all speech is constrained by its interpretive community. This paper critically evaluates liberal justifications for free academic expression, showing how these rely on abstract foundations that Fish’s neopragmatism calls into question; it reconstructs a Fishian account of academic freedom based on “professional correctness,” the idea that scholars are free only to the extent that their different forms of expression are coherent with the specific professional objectives and standards of scholarly inquiry.

Key words: Ronald Dworkin, academic freedom, freedom of speech, academic teacher, culture of independence

Language: polish

Published: Number 4(2025), pp. 96–111.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2025.4.96

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Freedom of Speech of an Academic Teacher: Some Conceptual Clarifications and a Landscape of Challenges

Patryk Kupis — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 19:17:06 +0000

dr Paweł Jabłoński, prof. dr hab. Przemysław Kaczmarek, dr Mateusz Wojtanowski

University of Wrocław

English abstract: In presenting this special issue of the “Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej. Journal of the Polish Section of IVR”, we would like not only to briefly introduce the contents of the individual articles that make up this volume but also to attempt to outline the field of research we are entering. We pursue these tasks in the following order. In the introductory section (1) we present the reasons why it is important and necessary today to address the titular issue. Next, we clarify the notion of the “academic teacher” (2). We then discuss the relationship between “freedom of speech” and “academic freedom”, noting that the relation is far less obvious than it might initially appear (3). Subsequently, we propose a division of the spheres of academic expression into three complementary areas, while emphasizing the preliminary and provisional nature of this distinction (4). In the next section (5) we outline one of the core disputes in the field of academic freedom, namely the opposition between activism and passivism. The final section (6) reviews the content of the articles included in this volume.

Keywords: freedom of speech, academic teacher, academic freedom

Language: English

Published: Number 4(2025), pp. 5–20.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2025.4.5

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