1. Controversial Speakers, Moral Disagreements, and the Middlebury Moment

Abstract

Student protests have developed on campuses throughout the country in response to controversial speakers. Overwhelmingly, these protests have been framed as conflicts over the right to free speech and the importance of free inquiry on college campuses. This essay reframes conflicts like these as moral disagreements over the role of individuals and institutions in producing and disseminating knowledge that supports or undermines justice within a pluralistic, democratic society. Using the specific case of Charles Murray’s visit to Middlebury College in spring 2017 and drawing insight from social moral epistemology, the essay aims to clarify the moral concerns at stake in clashes over controversial speakers and to identify possibilities to advance the moral aims of institutions of higher education in response to such events.

Taking Seriously Campus Debates Surrounding Invited Speakers: Open-Mindedness and the Ethics of Inquiry in Higher Education

“…All higher education institutions (and particularly private institutions like Middlebury) have discretion in crafting their invited speaker policies within legal constraints, and beyond the realm of policy, they have discretion in how to navigate the speaker events that they do sponsor in ways that are responsive to their communities and that center their educational and epistemic aims. Elsewhere, I have argued that events like this one present important pedagogical opportunities that higher education institutions should approach with a focus on the epistemic development of all their members (Taylor & Kuntz, 2019). Attending to these epistemic and educational priorities requires more than compliance with free speech law.…”

“…Attending to these epistemic and educational priorities requires more than compliance with free speech law. It calls for deeper attention to policies and practices around who is invited to speak on campus, the organization and management of speaker events, approaches to engaging with dissenters, and the integration of debate surrounding these events into ongoing campus dialogue both preceding and following the events (Taylor & Kuntz, 2019). My analysis in this study suggests that doing so also requires taking seriously the perspectives of student activists when they call for increased attention to collective responsibility for truth-seeking within their campus communities and raise concerns about ensuring basic equality of all campus community members, with particular attention to those who have experienced historical and contemporary marginalization and are most likely to be denied this status.…”

“… 3. For other philosophically engaged analyses of this case, see Kuntz (2019) and Taylor and Kuntz (2019). …”