Academic Freedom in the Age of the College

Richard Hofstadter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351288903
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

When this classic volume first appeared, academic freedom was a crucially important issue. It is equally so today. Hofstadter approaches the topic historically, showing how events from various historical epochs expose the degree of freedom in academic institutions. The volume exemplifies Richard Hofstader's qualities as a historian as well as his characteristic narrative ability.
Hofstadter first describes the medieval university and how its political independence evolved from its status as a corporate body, establishing a precedent for intellectual freedom that has been a measuring rod ever since. He shows how all intellectual discourse became polarized with the onset of the Reformation. The gradual spread of the Moderate Enlightenment in the colonies led to a major advance for intellectual freedom. But with the beginning of the nineteenth century the rise of denominationalism in both new and established colleges reversed the progress, and the secularization of learning became engulfed by a tidal wave of intensifying piety.
Roger L. Geiger's extensive new introduction evaluates Hofstadter's career as a historian and political theorist, his interest in academic freedom, and the continuing significance of Academic Freedom in the Age of the College. While most works about higher education treat the subject only as an agent of social economic mobility, Academic Freedom in the Age of the College is an enduring counterweight to such histories as it examines a more pressing issue: the fact that colleges and universities, at their best, should foster ideas at the frontiers of knowledge and understanding. This classic text will be invaluable to educators, university administrators, sociologist, and historians.

INDEX

Abelard: on authority, 14

on faith and reason, 28 f.

Sic et non, 29

Aberdeen, University of, 131n

Abolitionism, and the colleges, 253–61

Academic freedom, Mather on tutors at Harvard College, 104

contribution to by lay government, 120 ff.

role of college president, 125 f.

origin in changes in curriculum, 192 f.

and liberalized science teaching, 196–201

civil liberties and, 205 ff., 262 f.

limitations on, in colonial colleges, 210

and Jefferson’s plans for the University of Virginia, 238–42

idea of, 261–74

Academies, English, 76

Act of Supremacy, 74

Adams, Jasper, on role of faculty in college government, 236

Adelard of Bath, 28n

Adrian VI, pope, 41

Agreement of Religion and Philosophy, The (Averröes), 33 f.

Alain de Lille, on authority, 14

Albigensians, 19

Alford, John, 183

Alford Professorship of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity, 184, 253

Alien and Sedition laws, 207

Almanac, 200

Alison, Francis, 156

Allen, William, 150n

American colleges and universities, English influence on, 5

attitude toward extramural activities of professors, 96n

characteristic pattern for private college government, 143

period of retrogression, 1800-60, 209–74

expansion after 1799, 211 ff.

denominational schools (q.v.), 212 ff.

structure and government, 225 (see also Government, academic)

American colonies, political life, 201

Ames, William, 73

De conscientia, 179

Medulla Theologiae, 179

Andover Theological Seminary, 215n

Andros, Edmund, 96

Antinomians, 81

Antipedobaptism, 157

Appleton, Nathan, 130n

Argument, probable, 36 ff.

Aristotle, 29 f., 61

rediscovery of, 23 ff.

impact of Aristotelianism, 32 ff.

Ariosto, 44

Aristocracy, sponsorship of liberal education, 246 f.

Arminius, 68 ff.

Arminianism and Arminians, 68 ff., 167, 179 f.

Astronomy, 200

Authority, positive, and the authority of tradition, 11 ff.

Averroës (Ibn Rushd): commentaries on Aristotle, 25

The Agreement of Religion and Philosophy, 33n

Averroism and Averroists, 25, 39

theory of the “double truth,” 33 f.

on immortality of the soul, 45

Bacon, Francis, twofold theory of truth, 38n

Bacon, Roger, 24

Bainton, Roland, 63

Baptism: D...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction to the Transaction Edition
• I: The European Heritage
• II: Harvard College from Dunster to Leverett
• III: The Colonial Colleges
• IV: Religion, Reason, and Revolution
• V: The Old-Time College, 1800–1860
• Index