PHL 337: Ethics

The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Law provides a comprehensive, non-technical philosophical treatment of the fundamental questions about the nature of law. The final essay is -- Freedom of speech by Alon Harel.

Even if such speech is to be legally permitted, does our commitment to free speech allow us to provide material and institutional support to those who would contest such harmful speech? 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 relationship between speech and harm.

Christians of all theological and political backgrounds ought to be ardent advocates of advancing, not curbing, freedom of speech within their own ranks and in the increasingly secular societies in which they live. Christians, Free Expression, and the Common Good presents the concept of free expression--and its opposite, censorship--as tools for the Western church (and the U.S. Church in particular) to respond more wisely and effectively to controversy. In their most severe form, these controversies lead to both formal and informal limitations on free expression, as Christians seek to silence those with whom they most stridently disagree.