Anonymity as a Threat to Academic Freedom

This chapter addresses the threat posed to academic freedom by the use of anonymous judgments in the governance of science. In fact, most of the procedures that affect the day-to-day existence in academia are based on judgments or opinions expressed behind the cloak of anonymity. The latter has developed into a default rule whenever an assessment is required to inform decisions and actions in today’s academic system. Based on a thorough reading of Immanuel Kant the author shows how anonymous judgments violate the very nature and purpose of scientific dialogue and how anonymity operates as an instrument of control from inside the scientific dialogue and academic interchange. Its unquestioned adoption in the governance of science makes possible unprecedented, methodical, and systematic attacks to academic freedom.