’Debates on restrictions are old’

Markus Seidel on freedom in research and teaching. Markus Seidel © Centre for the Philosophy of Science (ZfW) - Sebastian Stachorra One special form of freedom is academic freedom in the arts and sciences, as laid down in Article 5, Section 2 of Germany's Basic Law. The first sentence states: "Arts and sciences, research and teaching are free." In this interview with André Bednarz , Dr. Markus Seidel , who works at the Centre for the Philosophy of Science at the University of Münster, explains this special freedom, which is enormously important for universities. Academic freedom is freedom in the arts and sciences. That sounds self-explanatory and understandable. Or do you have a different definition? No. The main reason is that it's by no means easy to provide definitions of academia and freedom.