Speech and Harm Controversies Over Free Speech

by Maitra, Ishani; McGowan, Mary Kate

• ISBN13: 9780199236275
• ISBN10: 0199236275
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Most liberal societies are deeply committed to a principle of free speech. At the same time, however, there is evidence that some kinds of speech are harmful in ways that are detrimental to important liberal values, such as social equality. Might a genuine commitment to free speech require that we legally permit speech even when it is harmful, and even when doing so is in conflict with our commitment to values like equality? Even if such speech is to be legally permitted, doesour commitment to free speech allow us to provide material and institutional support to those who would contest such harmful speech? And finally, and perhaps most importantly, which kinds of speech are harmful in ways that merit response, either in the form of legal regulation or in some other form?This collection explores these and related questions. Drawing on expertise in philosophy, sociology, political science, feminist theory, and legal theory, the contributors to this book investigate these themes and questions. By exploring various categories of speech (including pornography, hate speech, Holocaust denial literature, 'Whites Only' signs), and attending to the precise functioning of speech, the essays contained here shed light on these questions by clarifying the relationshipbetween speech and harm. Understanding how speech functions can help us work out which kinds of speech are harmful, what those harms are, and how the speech in question brings them about. All of these issues are crucially important when it comes to deciding what ought to be done about allegedlyharmful speech.

Author Biography

Ishani Mitra is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. Mary Kate McGowan is Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vi
List of contributors	p. xix
Introduction and Overview	p. 1
Freedom of Expression and Human Bights Law: The Case of Holocaust Denial	p. 24
'Speaking Back': The Likely Fate of Hate Speech Policy in the United States and Australia	p. 50
Beyond Belief: Pragmatics in Hate Speech and Pornography	p. 72
Subordinating Speech	p. 94
On 'Whites Only' Signs and Racist Hate Speech: Verbal Acts of Racial Discrimination	p. 121
Power in Public: Reactions, Responses, and Resistance to Offensive Public Speech	p. 148
Genocidal Language Games	p. 174
Words That Silence? Freedom of Expression and Racist Hate Speech	p. 222
Index	p. 249
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.