Is free speech important?
Doesn’t it make sense to know where people stand?
Let me give you an example of a story I read recently. It was said that a number of years ago Robert Zimmer (an American mathematician and academic administrator, who is the 13th president of the University of Chicago and serves on many other boards) was asked by an audience in China why the University of Chicago had with so many winners of the Nobel Prize. Mr. Zimmer answered that the key was a campus culture committed to “discourse, argument and lack of deference.”
Now let’s look at his answer. He said the campus culture was committed to discourse, argument and lack of deference. Discourse is communication or debate. Argument is an exchange of diverging or opposite views. Finally, lack of deference, while deference is courteous respect given to another. By adding the word lack, it means to be without. So ‘lack of deference’ means to be without respect. So, what you get at the University of Chicago is communication or debate or diverging or opposite views without respect.
While this may seem harsh, it has to work. I say that because it forces the people who are discussing opposite views to be totally committed to their side of the story but are eager to hear the other person’s views from a very blunt and challenging perspective. It forces those involved to either show resilience or become resilient.
I ask you; what is wrong with that?
Isn’t free speech that important?
Tim, I agree with your analysis of Robert Zimmer’s explanation of why the University of Chicago had so many Nobel Prize winners.
Discourse, argument and lack of deference should be jealously guarded at all educational institutions.
However, I respectfully suggest that your definition of “deference” is too narrow.
Yes, it is used to describe respect, but in the context of respect for a superior or elder’s opinion, respect because of their position not necessarily, for the value, wisdom or accuracy of their pronouncements.
In my opinion, respect and deference are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to respect a person without showing deference for his or her point of view.
My apologies if the above appears pedantic. I must blame it on my British influenced education.