The Classic Arguments for Free Speech 1644–1927

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-43
Author(s):  
Vincent Blasi
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
James Madison ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Oliver Wendell Holmes ◽  
Free Inquiry ◽  
Democratic Character

This chapter examines the classic arguments for freedom of speech. It traces the first comprehensive argument for freedom of speech as a limiting principle of government to John Milton’s Areopagitica, a polemic against censorship by a requirement of prior licensing in which Milton develops an argument for the pursuit of truth through exposure to false and heretical ideas rather than the passive reception of orthodoxy. Despite Milton’s belief in the advancement of understanding through free inquiry, he was far from liberal in the modern sense of that term and he did not, for instance, extend the tolerance he advocated to Catholic religious texts. The chapter then assesses what James Madison had to say about the role of public opinion as a crucial element in the creation of political authority and the preservation of rights, and considers Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr’s opinions about the freedom of speech. It also looks at how the celebrated federal judge Learned Hand conceives of the freedom of speech as a majority-creating procedure rather than an individual right, while Justice Louis Brandeis understood the freedom of speech to be an individual liberty important as such but especially important for its contribution to democratic character. Ultimately, the most widely-read of the classic arguments for free speech is that developed by John Stuart Mill in his Essay On Liberty.

1. Controversial Speakers, Moral Disagreements, and the Middlebury Moment

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Ashley Floyd Kuntz
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Moral Epistemology ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Student Protests ◽  
Free Inquiry ◽  
The Right

Abstract Student protests have developed on campuses throughout the country in response to controversial speakers. Overwhelmingly, these protests have been framed as conflicts over the right to free speech and the importance of free inquiry on college campuses. This essay reframes conflicts like these as moral disagreements over the role of individuals and institutions in producing and disseminating knowledge that supports or undermines justice within a pluralistic, democratic society. Using the specific case of Charles Murray’s visit to Middlebury College in spring 2017 and drawing insight from social moral epistemology, the essay aims to clarify the moral concerns at stake in clashes over controversial speakers and to identify possibilities to advance the moral aims of institutions of higher education in response to such events.

James Madison's Political Theory: Hostage to Democratic Fortune

2005 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
James Madison

Professor Alan Gibson's insightful article contains much that is admirable. He is, in my view, correct in calling scholars' attention—particularly political scientists—to James Madison's often neglected views in his National Gazette essays and the foundational role of public opinion on all governments. In addition, Gibson asserts several claims hoping to establish Madison's credentials as a democratic theorist that should be of interest as well. Specifically, he seeks to accomplish four tasks: (1) “to clarify the enduring debate over the credibility of Madison's democratic credentials”; (2) to “examine Madison's role in justifying, popularizing, and understanding… public opinion”; (3) to “highlight some of Madison's neglected insights into democratic theory, especially his understanding of the problem of collective action, and thereby establish him as a prescient democratic theorist”; and (4) to argue the case that Madison “contributed to a developing tradition of political thought in America upon a broad-based conception of freedom of speech and on the belief that political truths best emerge from the full flow of ideas.”While I concur with much of Gibson's position—especially his fourth, indisputable point—I also disagree with him on at least one significant position: James Madison was not a democrat.

The Democratic University: The Role of Justice in the Production of Knowledge

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth S. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Academic Standards ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Multicultural Curriculum ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Equal Respect

What is the proper role of politics in higher education? Many policies and reforms in the academy, from affirmative action and a multicultural curriculum to racial and sexual harassment codes and movements to change pedagogical styles, seek justice for oppressed groups in society. They understand justice to require a comprehensive equality of membership: individuals belonging to different groups should have equal access to educational opportunities; their interests and cultures should be taken equally seriously as worthy subjects of study, their persons treated with equal respect and concern in communicative interaction. Conservative critics of these egalitarian movements represent them as dangerous political meddling into the disinterested pursuit of knowledge. They cast the pursuit of equality as a threat to freedom of speech and academic standards. In response, some radical advocates of such programs agree that the quest for equality clashes with free speech, but view this as an argument for sacrificing freedom of speech.

Justice, Freedom of Speech, and Other Higher Pleasures

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Elijah Millgram
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
The Press

John Stuart Mill constructed a utilitarian defence of freedom of speech and of the press that turned on his associationist psychology: without free speech, you will be bored literally out of your mind. He likewise constructed a utilitarian defence of justice, one that made justice out to be a higher pleasure, and provided an associationist account of the higher pleasures to underwrite the argument.

Veneration and Vigilance: James Madison and Public Opinion, 1785–1800

2005 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political System ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
James Madison ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
Common Character ◽  
Insight Into

This essay examines the evolution from 1785 to 1800 of Madison's understanding of the proper role of public opinion in the American political system. It provides an insight into Madison's transformation from the leading architect of the Constitution during the 1780s to the opposition leader of the Jeffersonian party during the 1790s. The essay challenges the contention that Madison's writings on public opinion establish his support for using governmental institutions and statesmanship to improve the souls of the citizenry and to develop a common character among them. Instead, it is argued, Madison defended the sovereignty of public opinion as a means for citizens to influence and monitor their representatives’ actions in an extended republic where these tasks were at once difficult and imperative. In the course of this defense, Madison contributed to a developing libertarian tradition of political thought in America based upon the broad protection of freedom of speech and the belief that political truths best emerge from the free flow of ideas.

Freedom of Speech

2018 ◽  
pp. 305-354
Author(s):  
Sandra Fredman
Keyword(s):  
First Amendment ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
Section Viii ◽  
The Right

This chapter assesses the theories justifying freedom of speech (Section II). Section III considers how free speech is protected by human rights instruments. The absence of an express limitation clause in the US First Amendment contrasts with other jurisdictions, which permit justifiable limitations. Sections IV–VII consider how courts have dealt with the most burning issues confronted in all of these jurisdictions: whether freedom of speech protects subversive speech, pornography, and hate speech. Where the limits of liberal tolerance lie remains a challenge for courts. While the harm principle provides a starting point, much depends on how speech is seen to cause harm. Section VIII asks whether the right-bearer includes not just the speaker, but also the recipient of speech and assesses the role of freedom of information. The chapter concludes that freedom of speech should go further than curbing State power to censor speech, creating conditions of genuine equality.

The Logic of ‘But’: Quarrels, Literature and Democracy

Paragraph ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-130
Author(s):  
Thomas Docherty
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
The Way

This paper looks at intrinsic disputation within proposition, and specifically within propositions that offer a moderated version of the freedom of speech and expression. It begins from a consideration of what is at stake in Othello's ‘Rude am I in my speech’, a rhetorical gesture that frames an act of great eloquence, and in which the eloquence serves to formulate a quarrel by ostensibly resolving it. This example reveals that there is a conflict between empirical quarrel and articulated spoken resolution. This leads the essay to explore the way in which diplomacy works, whereby we establish the pretence that there is peace between disputatious positions through the power of the logic of ‘but’, thus: ‘I agree with you, but …’. Finally, this is extended to a consideration of the limits of and/or on free speech: ‘I defend free speech, but …’, where the ‘but’ is a gesture in which the defence of free speech is modified to the point of being obliterated.

Public Opinion on the Web: The Arab Listeners of the BBC

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haidar Moukdad
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
The Web

Sample contributions by Arab contributors to a discussion forum were analyzed to study the role of the Web in promoting free speech and demystifying long held views of Arab public opinion. The findings of the study highlight the importance of the role played by the Web in promoting free speech among traditionally repressed populations, and provide insights that will help in correcting misconceptions about Arab public opinion.Un échantillonnage d’interventions par des participants arabes à un forum de discussion a été analysé afin d’étudier le rôle du Web dans le développement de la liberté de parole et la démystification des préjugés concernant l’opinion publique arabe. Les résultats de l’étude mettent en lumière l’importance du rôle joué par le Web dans le développement de la liberté de parole parmi les populations traditionnellement réprimées et offrent des idées qui aideront à corriger les idées préconçues concernant l’opinion publique arabe. 

The National and the Universal

2020 ◽  
pp. 368-386
Author(s):  
Sarah Collins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Johann Gottfried Herder ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Respective Treatment ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines the continuities between the categories of the “national” and the “universal” in the nineteenth century. It construes these categories as interrelated efforts to create a “world” on various scales. The chapter explores the perceived role of music as a world-making medium within these discourses. It argues that the increased exposure to cultural difference and the interpretation of that cultural difference as distant in time and space shaped a conception of “humanity” in terms of a universal history of world cultures. The chapter reexamines those early nineteenth-century thinkers whose work became inextricably linked with the rise of exclusivist notions of nationalism in the late nineteenth century, such as Johann Gottfried Herder and John Stuart Mill. It draws from their respective treatment of music to recover their early commitment to universalizable principles and their view that the “world” is something that must be actively created rather than empirically observed.

PERSECUTION AND THE ART OF FREEDOM: ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FREE PRESS AND FREE SPEECH IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Khalil M. Habib
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Constituent Element ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Right ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractAccording to Tocqueville, the freedom of the press, which he treats as an extension of the freedom of speech, is a primary constituent element of liberty. Tocqueville treats the freedom of the press in relation to and as an extension of the right to assemble and govern one’s own affairs, both of which he argues are essential to preserving liberty in a free society. Although scholars acknowledge the importance of civil associations to liberty in Tocqueville’s political thought, they routinely ignore the importance he places on the freedom of the press and speech. His reflections on the importance of the free press and speech may help to shed light on the dangers of recent attempts to censor the press and speech.

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