Word: bok
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Bok bases his argument about intellectual freedom on the assumption that the University can avoid moral dilemmas by ignoring them. In his second letter, he quietly admits that it cannot: "When [the University] makes it purchases, it normally chooses the company that can provide the goods and services it needs at the best available price. Granted, such purchases do contribute something to the supplier's profits. But...'" And Bok goes on to rationalize Harvard's failure to include value judgments in making its purchasing decision. But he has acknowledged the crucial point that the University does support the status...
...Once Bok has admitted that not to decide is to decide, his argument about intellectual freedom loses its basis: the University cannot avoid having an "official doctrine." The question then becomes whose doctrine it will be--the Harvard Corporation's or the community...
...Bok has answered that question with a high-minded contempt for the democratic process. "An institutional statement," he says, "may come about through the weight of faculty resolutions and student petitions that reflect the views of many persons with little time or special competence to judge the issues." But should moral judgments be made by specialists? As citizens of the University community do not the faculty and students have the right and the duty to help make those decisions...
...Bok's second proposition is that decisions made on moral grounds will endanger the independence of the University. This argument, repeated in each of the letters, is a textbook example of circular reasoning. He writes in his first letter...
President Bok is arguing that we should not use our rights in order to protect our rights. The University as an investor has the right to decide which corporations it wants to invest in on any grounds it deems appropriate. And yet, Bok argues that Harvard's decision to divest of its South African holdings would tend "to undermine the willingness of outside groups to respect the academic freedom of the University." Every consumer has the right to decide which products to buy and which not to buy and yet Bok believes that by exercising this right, Harvard will induce...