Book reviews: Sigal R Ben-Porath, Cancel Wars: How Universities Can Foster Free Speech, Promote Inclusion, and Renew Democracy

Abstract

Some of the most vexing issues in ethics revolve around tradeoffs between fundamental values such as individual rights and the greater good, privacy and security, freedom and equality. In contemporary politics, there is perhaps no better example of such a tradeoff than the one underlying the current conflicts that have roiled college campuses: the tradeoff between the value of freedom of expression on the one hand, and the values of inclusion, belonging, and social harmony on the other. Universities ought to host fierce debate and foster unfettered intellectual exploration. Yet in an increasingly diverse and polarizing society, we also want universities to be as inclusive and welcoming as possible – we want all members of the campus community to flourish. Since speech itself can powerfully exclude, we seem at a loss when it comes to reconciling these competing values. What is so compelling about Sigal Ben-Porath’s new book Cancel Wars is her meticulous, and largely successful, attempt to smooth out the apparent tension between them. She demonstrates that free speech and inclusion may not be so conflictual as we might have thought. Her project is rooted in the particularly democratic role she envisions for universities in the wider context of society. She announces on the first page that ‘colleges are laboratories in which democracy is learned, practiced, and enhanced’ (p. 1). Colleges and universities play this role in two key ways. First, they produce and disseminate the shared knowledge foundational for building policy and navigating governance in a complex world. Politics needs a commonly understood reality to operate successfully. Second, universities ‘seed democratic habits and practices’ by fostering the interactions necessary for building trust and mutual understanding across diverse individuals (p. 1). These dual functions are vital in our polarized times, Ben-Porath observes in chapter 1. We seem no longer to know what or whom to trust, but universities are well-positioned to help. In chapter 2, Ben-Porath considers, and ultimately rejects, three commonly proposed avenues for establishing a shared epistemic foundation for democracy. We cannot rely on (1) a clear delineation of fact from opinion, on (2) well-defined groups of experts and technocrats, nor on (3) public faith in institutional reliability. Rather, Ben-Porath 1178363 TRE0010.1177/14778785231178363Theory and Research in EducationBook reviews book-review2023