My Thoughts on Free Speech Philosophy and Ethics

1.      Key Philosophical Principles in support of Free Expression (based on various writers in the Western Tradition)
 

a.   The censored opinion might be true and the “accepted” view false.  (e.g. Galileo was forced to recant but the earth does revolve around the sun)

b.   Erroneous opinions may have a grain of truth or may stimulate the discovery of truth. Facts-wrong; method right

c.   Even the truth must be tested.  Without challenge ideas become lifeless and seem mere prejudice. 

d.   Limitations on expression make the test of what is true a matter of power and strength instead of reason.  Robert Persig (Zen) and the University as the “church of Reason.”

e.   Censorship for the protection of others implies that those protected be viewed as not capable of full dealing with ideas, of reasoning, of defending their own views.  It defines them as less than complete people, less than fully human.

f.    Expression, whether in words, through art, or in science is the essence of becoming who we are.  Control of expression is control of the most intimate, personal element of our humanness, our self.

2.      An Ethic of Communication and Freedom of Expression
 

a.      John Searle 1969 began development of “Speech Act Theory”

                                      i.       participants must be sincere (yielding trust) to self and others

                                      ii.      participants have an equal chance to select and employ communication acts (access)

                                      iii.     messages must be intelligible

                                      iv.     interaction must be free of coercion - limited power differentials

                                      v.      mutually negotiated norms must be in effect

b.      Searle’s theory is about the essential elements of how humans make meaning when they communication.  I’ve become interested in how this theory creates a basis for ethics and freedom.  (Borrowing from Stan Deetz, U. of Colo.)

c.      Communication requires the assumption of sincerity, that it is possible even likely that the speaker is sincere and “means” what he says.  Enforced controls on expression undermine that assumption and undermine the possibility of real expression, real conversation.

d.      If you’re just saying what we all know you have to say, it’s not really meaningful.  It is “Yadda, Yadda, Yadda!”

e.      Knowing/discovering what is true is a community process for which authentic communication is essential.  Thus, testing the truth with "argument" is necessary for us to deal with the world as it really is (even the intersubjective world).

f.       Free Expression tends to contain and limit violence and the abuse of power through reason.