Category: Free Speech and Political Diversity
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Why Aren’t Illiberal Universities Challenged?
Commenting on the present crisis of herd morality and the policing of public rationalities that constrain content-full discourse and illuminating debate around issues of identity, sexuality, and the like, Nigel Biggar opened his recent contribition to UnHerd, and their ‘Groupthink’ theme, with these words: We need to talk about ‘discrimination’, ‘homophobia’, and ‘identity’. In fact, we need to rethink them.…
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Viewpoint Diversity
‘University Unchallenged’, a Radio 4 broadcast produced by Martin Rosenbaum, explored a principal question, Is there a damaging political consensus in the academic world? This discussion was led by Matthew Flinders, professor of politics at Sheffield University, and was focused on whether viewpoint diversity is a problem within the academy. Listen to the broadcast through the BBC…
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Civility in Academia
The Times published an op-ed essay by Nigel Biggar arguing that free academic inquiry is undermined by a lack of civility in public debates between university scholars and urging a recovery of ‘habits of self-restraint’ for the sake of both the universities and democratic society more widely. The article prompted a response from Kim Wagner and James McDougall in The Times Higher Education Supplement,…
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Charlie Hebdo: One Year On
In an op-ed piece for The Times Nigel Biggar argues that a distinction should be drawn between the legal right of satirists to exercise their freedom of speech and the moral permissibility of doing so. The article reprises and develops points he raised in a letter to the newspaper shortly after the attacks on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo on 7…