Authors :
Sujay Rao Mandavilli
Volume/Issue :
Volume 7 - 2022, Issue 9 - September
Google Scholar :
https://bit.ly/3IIfn9N
Scribd :
https://bit.ly/3fRTbkO
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7162492
Abstract :
This paper explores the twin issues of
Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility among
researchers and scholars, and gaps in theory and praxis
as well. It also discusses the current application of ethics
and objectivity in science, and discusses the need for
change so as to highlight a scholar’s duties towards
science, society and the education system. It also takes
vital clues from various fields of social sciences such as
Sociology and Anthropology besides other sciences and
investigates their relevance to the tenets of this paper. It
summarizes key issues in the debate between Academic
Freedom and Social Responsibility and emphasizes the
need for Social Responsibility while underlining the
dangers of unbridled Academic freedom to society and
the education system.We link this paper to our earlier
publications including Historiography by Objectives,
Principles of Twenty-first Century Historiography, and
Anthropological Historiography, besides the sociology of
science and Anthropological pedagogy, and see how this
can have a bearing on Ethics and Codes of Conduct in
science in general. Such ethics and codes of conduct are
currently patchy at best, and must be consolidated and
reinforced, and must emphasize a scholar’s duty towards
science, society and the education system. Thus,
academic freedom cannot override social responsibility,
or be contrary to it. Such approaches are likely to raise
eyebrows and face stiff resistance from vested interests
and cabals around the world but these need to be
encountered and surmounted in the interest of
scholarship and science.This also becomes necessary
because most academicians hold paid positions, and
definitions of social responsibilities must be preferably
driven by university mandates. Needless to say,
movements emphasizing social duties must be extended
to all fields of the social sciences, besides the physical
sciences, and must become one of the important
movements of the Twenty-first century.
This paper explores the twin issues of
Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility among
researchers and scholars, and gaps in theory and praxis
as well. It also discusses the current application of ethics
and objectivity in science, and discusses the need for
change so as to highlight a scholar’s duties towards
science, society and the education system. It also takes
vital clues from various fields of social sciences such as
Sociology and Anthropology besides other sciences and
investigates their relevance to the tenets of this paper. It
summarizes key issues in the debate between Academic
Freedom and Social Responsibility and emphasizes the
need for Social Responsibility while underlining the
dangers of unbridled Academic freedom to society and
the education system.We link this paper to our earlier
publications including Historiography by Objectives,
Principles of Twenty-first Century Historiography, and
Anthropological Historiography, besides the sociology of
science and Anthropological pedagogy, and see how this
can have a bearing on Ethics and Codes of Conduct in
science in general. Such ethics and codes of conduct are
currently patchy at best, and must be consolidated and
reinforced, and must emphasize a scholar’s duty towards
science, society and the education system. Thus,
academic freedom cannot override social responsibility,
or be contrary to it. Such approaches are likely to raise
eyebrows and face stiff resistance from vested interests
and cabals around the world but these need to be
encountered and surmounted in the interest of
scholarship and science.This also becomes necessary
because most academicians hold paid positions, and
definitions of social responsibilities must be preferably
driven by university mandates. Needless to say,
movements emphasizing social duties must be extended
to all fields of the social sciences, besides the physical
sciences, and must become one of the important
movements of the Twenty-first century.
