Academic Freedom: An Ancient Myth

Academic freedom, an eternal proposition and an ancient but never out-of-date topic, is as old as the university. Academic freedom is a dynamic and developing concept. Since the 19th century the modern academic freedom has been formed in Germany, its meaning has been developing and enriching continuously. Therefore, the definition of academic freedom will naturally become the logical starting point of this study. First, it can been seen that, from three dimensions of academic freedom—"quality", "degree" and "value", academic freedom, as a faith of the university, a spiritual pillar of the university, a fundamental right of a scholar in academic activities without unreasonable interference from the outside world, includes three aspects: the university autonomy, learning freedom, teaching and researching freedom. It has an important value for the academic development and talent training of the university, but it is also limited, fragile, and susceptible to various constraints and violations. Then, the realistic issues, and the point of integration between theory and reality based on the theory are explored. The realistic issues the study explores are the performance and the limitations of academic freedom in ancient Shu—yuan and the modern university. Any theoretical studies are aimed at solving practical problems. The ultimate aim of the research of what academic freedom is and why academic freedom is needed, and the research of the reality of academic freedom crossing time and space in ancient Shu—yuan and modern universities, is to realize the academic freedom. Through the value analysis and empirical analysis of academic freedom, the basic idea achieving the academic freedom is proposed. This is what the thesis attempts to achieve.