Elisabeth Pearson Waugaman Ph.D. (USA) posted (Mar 09, 2016) on the website `Psychology Today` the article, in which she discusses questions:
«Why is authorship important? What does new research reveal about Shakespeare?» <DebateAuthor>
I`ll give a few passages from it:
An academic debate that has become extremely contentious is the Shakespeare authorship question. Questioners are condemned as “ignoble”, “bonkers”, “conspiracy theorists”, even “holocaust deniers”. A professor acknowledged (off the record) that addressing the authorship question is “academic suicide”. <…>
Academic disagreements become polemical because disagreement with accepted academic thought threatens the entire academic hierarchy. By starting with a given set of premises, reasoning becomes circular, deductive rather than inductive, making an unbiased conclusion problematic. Progress, however, depends on academic analysis free from self-interest. <…>
It is not acceptable for academics to label those who question the traditional authorship as “conspiracy theorists” (or worse) when the traditional theory for Shakspere is built upon historical fictions and suppositions that are presented as facts. Differing points-of-view must be allowed the same playing field… We need free academic discussion. <…>
Support Academic Freedom — If you think that the authorship question is fair — that it is okay to ask who wrote the works, to speculate, to inquire, to enrich your understanding of the history and the personages of the era — then, please, sign: