Cogent essays about a topic crucial to the university and to all discourse in a democracy.
Scholars consider threats to free inquiry.
Editors Bilgrami (Philosophy/Columbia Univ.; Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment, 2013, etc.) and Cole (Mason Professor of the University/Columbia Univ.; The Great American University, 2010, etc.) bring together eminent scholars—Stanley Fish, Noam Chomsky and Judith Butler, among them—to analyze the vexing and controversial issue of academic freedom. The concept began in the late 19th century, when American colleges no longer aimed to train men for the ministry but rather to become critical thinkers. “To criticize and augment, as well as to preserve the tradition, became an accepted function…,” write the editors. “This was an extraordinary departure for a system that previously had aimed primarily at cultural conservation.” Coincident with internal changes was new funding: private support by prominent businessmen, who assumed they could influence curriculum and hiring. Princeton professor Joan Scott notes that the doctrine of academic freedom was codified in 1915 by the American Association of University Professors to ensure faculty autonomy in newly established research universities. The AAUP held that teaching, research and publications should be evaluated only by professional scholars with relevant expertise. That stipulation still engenders debate, as government funding and Institutional Review Boards weigh in on research parameters. Like other contributors, Columbia philosophy professor Michele Moody-Adams sees the university as a refuge where intellectual diversity, however unsettling to donors, colleagues or even students, must be preserved. Several contributors consider whether academic freedom is guaranteed by the First Amendment or whether it has a special legal status. A final, eye-opening essay summarizes a study conducted at Columbia in which 1,610 faculty members were asked to evaluate 14 vignettes suggesting challenges to academic freedom: research curtailed by IRBs, for example, or faculty making politically unpopular remarks in class. The results showed wide disagreement about what free inquiry means and what academic freedom protects.
Cogent essays about a topic crucial to the university and to all discourse in a democracy.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-231-16880-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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