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Academic Freedom

Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

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Introduction

Academic freedom can plausibly be described as the freedom of university teachers and researchers to produce and make public through scholarly publications, teaching, and other means (extramural speech) any type of material (views, theories, inventions, results, syllabi, etc.) related to their scientific expertise without running the risk of being punished, purged, or silenced for doing so. From this, it follows that the personal beliefs expressed by academics, when they speak in other capacities, i.e., as followers of political parties or football clubs, do not fall within the domain of academic freedom but of freedom of speech in general, although it has to be admitted that, on certain occasions, it is impossible to draw a clear line between what an academic says when she speaks in her official capacity and what she says when she speaks as an ordinary citizen. Moreover, an interesting question about whether academic freedom should be extended to those teaching in primary...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Filimon Peonidis

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  1. Filimon Peonidis
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Correspondence to Filimon Peonidis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Salzburg, Austria, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Law, Ankara University, Yenimahalle/Ankara, Turkey

    Gülriz Uygur

  2. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Konstantinos Papageorgiou

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Peonidis, F. (2019). Academic Freedom. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_683-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_683-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6730-0

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Freedom, Academic
    Published:
    11 November 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_683-2

  2. Original

    Academic Freedom
    Published:
    13 July 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_683-1

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