More of Freedom Of Speech

This is a guest post by Chris Cardiff. In Chris's words he, "struggles to teach and apply MBM as a member of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation MBM team."

 

Last week I spent three days vacationing at Virginia Beach, stretched out under a sun umbrella, accompanied by my wife and John Stuart Mill. Okay, Mill wasn’t there in person but his ideas On Liberty were. I was particularly interested in exploring the second chapter, “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion,” because  my team recommended it as a good reading regarding the value of free speech for society.

My recollection of Mill from past readings was that he would make a strong case for an aspect of liberty but then follow up with caveats that provided lots of room for undermining that principle. This chapter does not follow that pattern; it is a full-throated advocacy for freedom of speech.

As Ann noted earlier, Mill argues compellingly for what we call the challenge process: “But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race…if the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging truth for error: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” Does anyone else hear a hint of Polanyi’s “Republic of Science” in those words?   

I also loved the way Mill connects freedom of speech with  the Guiding Principle of Humility: “All silencing of dissent is an assumption of infallibility.”  What do you think of Mill's work on Freedom of Speech? Have you read anything else that has made you think of the challenge process?  

 

Thanks to Chris for his contribution. If you'd like to submit a guest post for potential publication on this blog, please email drafts to Ann at ann.zerkle (at) cgkfoundation.org.