This collection of essays is the result of the conference on Academic Freedom which is a joint venture born out of the deep friendship between Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU).
Academic Freedom is a unifying subject. It is common to any academic institution and it is crucial to any discipline. It has different perspectives and it can be illuminated from many different angles. For example, postmodern theories prevalent in the soft sciences deny the existence of an absolute truth to which scientists must aspire. Hence, what would be the objective criteria by which scientists and others can evaluate someone’s academic achievements? Multicultural theories attribute the same intellectual force to distinct cultures and denounce views which conceive e.g. Western culture as superior as politically incorrect.
How is academic freedom compatible with these theories? Does the principle of equality overweigh the principle of freedom? Do we allow freedom to ourselves? What is our duty to ourselves and to the community? Has the theory of detachment, of the Ivory Tower, collapsed? What is the price we pay for it? Can academia actually be detached from politics?
Some of these questions are being discussed in the essays and the authors try to illuminate the topic of academic freedom from different angles such as »Moral Obligations and Universal Standards«, »Free Spirit and Free Research«, »Liberty Fraternity and Inequality« or »Threatening of Medical Research by the Animal Right Movement«.