Phi Beta Cons

Academic ‘Antagonymics’

Ashley Thorne and Peter Wood interview the two candidates running for the AAUP presidency — in the context of a discussion of the opposite meanings which the NAS and AAUP assign to the concept “academic freedom.”
Words that encompass such contrary meanings are antagonyms, of which academic freedom is an example. Thus the AAUP uses the term to mean “the right to bluster,” while the NAS defines it as “the obligation not to.”

Candace de Russy is a nationally recognized expert on education and cultural issues.
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