ABSTRACT
Public intellectuals are obliged to practice self-restraint and attend to external criticism so that they do not adopt positions of assumed certainty in a simplified universe. This disposition reflects a delicate and important social contract, particularly within the professoriate. With these purposes in mind during the past century, educators have built an establishment of organizations, institutions, and publications that, for all their limitations, have effectively propagated, as both necessary and appropriate, professional practices such as self-restraint and attention to criticism. An air of transparency and concern for the public good has been sustained, as well as distance from conflicts of interest through the possibility of open debate, honestly brokered, and a process of inquiry that is not tainted by intervening agendas or censorship.
