Intellectual Diversity and Academic Professionalism

James R. Otteson

Pages: 8 – 19  |  First Published: August 2018

Abstract

Division and polarization on college and university campuses seems to be increasing, while support for free speech and intellectual diversity seems to be weakening. I suggest that a cause of both might be a lack of consensus about what the purpose of higher education is and what the professional responsibilities of professors are. I argue that academics should embrace a professional identity that is informed by and dedicated to an open-ended process of inquiry that has characterized our intellectual tradition since the time of ancient Greece, and not by allegiance to particular political positions or outcomes.

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