A Book Too Risky To Publish

James R Flynn

Description

Traditionally, our society has broadly agreed that the “good university” should teach the intellectual skills students need to become citizens who are intelligently critical of their own beliefs and of the narratives presented politicians, society, the media, and, indeed, universities themselves. The freedom to debate is essential to the development of critical thought, but on university campuses today free speech is increasingly restricted for fear of causing “offense.” In this daring and intrepid book, which was originally withdrawn from publication by another publisher but is now proudly presented by Academica Press, the famous intelligence researcher James R. Flynn presents the underlying factors that have circumscribed the range of ideas now tolerated in our institutions of learning. Flynn studiously examines how universities effectively censor teaching, how social and political activism effectively censors its opponents, and how academics censor themselves and each other. A Book Too Risky To Publish concludes that few universities are now living up to their original mission to promote free inquiry and unfettered critical thought. In an age marred by fake news and ever increasing social and political polarization, this book makes an impassioned argument for a return to critical thought in our institutions of higher education.

Sujets

• Political Science
• Freedom of speech
• Philosophy
• American studies
• Critical thinking
• Ideology
• Humanities
• Politics
• Higher education
• Ethics
• Education
• Epistemology
• Lists of universities and colleges

Informations

• Publié par: Academica Press
• Date de parution: 20 décembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781680539691
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A Book Too Risky to Publish: Free Speech and Universities
James R. Flynn
A Book Too Risky to Publish: Free Speech and Universities
James R. Flynn
Academica Press Washington - London
Library of Congress Registration Information
Name: Flynn, James R., author. 1934 -
Title: A book too risky to publish : free speech and universities
Description: Washington, DC : Academica Press, 2020. | Identifiers:
LCCN: 2019952687 | ISBN 9781680532043 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781680532197 (paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781680539691 (ebook)
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019952687
Copyright 2020 James R. Flynn
He who dares not reason is a slave. (Sir William Drummond, 1585 - 1649)
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. (George Orwell, original preface to Animal Farm, 1953)
Someone had said that there was nothing that tasted so good as one s own ear wax. (Kobo Abe, The woman in the dunes, 1966, p. 280)
Looming over this whole debate is a terrible temptation: the assumption that since you know that virtue is on your side, truth must be on your side - and that an honest effort to perceive the truth is immoral (Flynn, 2019)
Contents
Preface
List of Boxes
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1
Knowledge and Right Opinion
1
John Stuart Mill and the mission of the university
2
Middlebury and my mind
Part 2
What others do to academics
3
The era of conservative oppression
4
The transition
5
The era of radical oppression
6
The struggle for control
7
Chicago and Yale and Harvard
Part 3
What academics do to themselves
8
Black studies
9
Women s Studies
10
The Walden Codes
Part 4
What academics do to students
11
The teaching of teachers
12
The whole man: Critical skills
13
The whole man: Critical minds
Part 5
Justification and advice
14
In praise of autonomy
15
The three frogs
References
Index
Name Index
Subject Index
Preface
A publishing house in the United Kingdom had scheduled this book for publication but then e - mailed that they would not proceed:
Dear Professor Flynn:
I am contacting you in regard to your manuscript In Defense of Free Speech: The University as Censor. [We] believe that its publication, in particular in the United Kingdom, would raise serious concerns. By the nature of its subject matter, the work addresses sensitive topics of race, religion, and gender. The challenging manner in which you handle these topics as author, particularly at the beginning of the work, whilst no doubt editorially powerful, increase the sensitivity and the risk of reaction and legal challenge. As a result, we have taken external legal advice on the contents of the manuscript and summarize our concerns below .
There are two main causes of concern for [us]. Firstly, the work could be seen to incite racial hatred and stir up religious hatred under United Kingdom law. Clearly you have no intention of promoting racism but intent can be irrelevant. For example, one test is merely whether it is likely that racial hatred could be stirred up as a result of the work. This is a particular difficulty given modern means of digital media expression. The potential for circulation of the more controversial passages of the manuscript online, without the wider intellectual context of the work as a whole and to a very broad audience - in a manner beyond our control - represents a material legal risk for [us] .
Secondly, there are many instances in the manuscript where the actions, conversations and behavior of identifiable individuals at specific named colleges are discussed in detail and at length in relation to controversial events. Given the sensitivity of the issues involved, there is both the potential for serious harm to [our] reputation and the significant possibility of legal action. Substantial changes to the content and nature of the manuscript would need to be made, or [we] would need to accept a high level of risk both reputational and legal. The practical costs and difficulty of managing any reputational or legal problems that did arise are of further concern to [us] .
For the reasons outlined above, it is with regret that [we have] taken the decision not to publish your manuscript. We have not taken this decision lightly, but following senior level discussions within the organization, and with the additional benefit of specialist legal advice. I realize that this decision will come as a disappointment to you and hope that you will be able to find an alternative publisher with whom to take the work to publication .
The reader can evaluate the above after reading the book. The text in front of you has not been sanitized - all changes have been made simply to clarify passages or eliminate typos. The text does not deviate from my practice in seventeen previous books: all comments on named persons are based on citations of published sources or material in the public domain. This is not merely my opinion but also that of several leading scholars and two American presses that were asked whether it posed legal problems. Historians or journalists that wish to verify the facts should contact the author to receive the original copy of the book. In light of the circumstances I have altered the title from In Defense of Free Speech: The University as Censor to A Book Too Risky to Publish: Free Speech and Universities .
The UK publishing house s fears are typical in that country and pose a question: does the climate of opinion in Britain even approximate what might be called free speech? Since the rejection became public in Quillette (Flynn, 2019), fifteen other presses approached the author: nine in the United States, one in the UK (a non - royalties paying press), three in Europe, and two in Brazil. Confidential communications revealed that two other UK presses were terrified. None of the non - UK presses seemed to fear legal consequences. Among the American presses, right - leaning ones were very receptive: they were happy to use the book s withdrawal from publication as evidence of liberal intolerance. At least one (self - described) left - leaning press wanted changes that would prevent the book from being weaponized by the right, and also wanted incendiary passages qualified. Two others felt that their readers were not quite ready for this kind of book.
I can hardly generalize, but it looks as though freedom of the press is endangered, at least in Britain. American presses seem to be politicized but collectively allow a range of views to be published, not because they endorse free speech but because they wish to vindicate their own politics. Academica Press, the ultimate publisher of this book, was the notable exception and has no ideological leaning.
A number of scholars and journalists, all of whom read the original manuscript, wish to put on record their view that this book should not have been withdrawn from publication. With their permission, their names are listed here:
Joshua Aronson - Associate Professor of Psychology, New York University
Thomas J. Bouchard - Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Minnesota
Roberto Colom - Professor of Psychology, Autonomous University, Madrid
Gilberto Corbellini - Professor Bioethics Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome
Ian J. Deary - Professor of Psychology, University of Edinburgh William T. Dickens - Distinguished Professor of Economics, Northeastern University
Linda Gottfredson - Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Delaware
Jonathan Haidt - Professor of Ethical leadership, New York University
Aynsley Kellow - Professor Emeritus of Government, Univrersity of Tasmania
John C. Loehlin - Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Psychology, University of Texas
Austin Mitchell - Former MP and Whip of the British Labour Party
Charles Murray - Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute (US)
Richard Nisbett - Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, University of Michigan
Mark Olssen - Professor Emeritus of Political Theory Education, University of Surrey
Steven Pinker - Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Peter Singer - Distinguished Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University
Thomas Sowell - Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Thijmen Sprakel - Educator and Editor - in - Chief, EduKitchn.nl
Ramesh Thakur - Professor Emeritus, Australian National University and Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations
The names of three others that could not be located appeared in an early printing. This list is definitive.
List of Boxes
Box 1. Books about free speech on campus
Box 2. Jensen and Factor X
Box 3. Black subculture and the IQ debate
Box 4. Subjectivity and objectivity in ethics
Box 5. How to give a decent lecture in the humanities
Box 6. FISC items and concepts: Gene Debs
Box 7. FISC performance by subtest, total score, and realist vs. postmodern
Box 8. Israel and Arabs
Box 9. Flynn versus Murray
List of Tables
Table 1. Caliber of university intake for selected years
Table 2. Gains in critical thinking at university
Acknowledgements
I owe thanks to all of the scholars who read drafts of the text as listed in the preface. I have used material from my previous books but the major borrowings are as follows:
Chapter 14 from How To Improve Your Mind: Twenty Key