Free Speech on Campus: The University's Constitution

If the university had a constitution, would it contain a free speech provision as the U.S. Constitution does? In Free Speech on Campus, Martin P. Golding confronts this question, examining issues of principle in the debate over campus speech. Golding suggests that the University is a special social institution that has as its goal the dissemination and advancement of knowledge, and he explores some of the implications of this approach, including its implication for faculty hiring. Golding examines the claim that there are academic orthodoxies in the University that inhibit the introduction of new ideas and methods, and he critically discusses in detail arguments that have been advanced for campus speech codes. Students and teachers in every discipline will find this book engaging and illuminating; it is especially relevant for ethicists and philosophers of education.

If the University had a constitution, would it contain a free speech provision such as exists in the U.S. Constitution? The author develops in some detail the idea of the University as a special social institution that has as its goal the dissemination and advancement of knowledge.Free Speech on Campus examines the arguments, pro and con, concerning appropriate standards of discourse and expression that are particularly germane to the campus context, public or private, whether or not they are constitutionally enforceable. Students and teachers in every discipline will find this book engaging and illuminating; it is especially relevant for ethicists and philosophers of education.

Martin P. Golding is professor of philosophy and law at Duke University. He is the author of Philosophy of Law and Legal Reasoning, and the editor of The Nature of Law and Jewish Law and Legal Theory.