“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” (Salman Rushdie)
The right to free speech is one of the classic liberal rights. We are used to hearing it defended as such in the public. Yet at the same time, sharp controversies over its scope persist. If Salman Rushdie is right, then there is no claim to any protection from one’s most cherished values being maligned, be they religious or not. Or is there a right to have others limit their use of the right to free speech in such a way as to avoid harm?
It is equally controversial what counts as a violation of the right to free speech. Are protests against public speakers already attempts to silence them and thereby violations of their right to free speech? Do regulations e.g. of statements in social media automatically amount to censorship?
These and further questions will be discussed in the seminar. The perspective is a political and philosophical one; we will focus less on the legal right to free speech that we have and more on the reasons how to justify the right to free speech and its limits.
Preparatory Reading
Butler, Judith (2006 [1997]): Haß spricht. Zur Politik des Performativen. Übersetzt von Kathrina Menke und Markus Krist. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.
Herrmann, Steffen Kitty, Sybille Krämer und Hannes Kuch (Hrsg.) (2007), Verletzende Worte. Die Grammatik sprachlicher Missachtung. Bielefeld: transcript.
Niesen, Peter (2015): Über die Freiheit des Denkens und der Diskussion. In: Michael Schefczyk und Thomas Schramme (Hrsg.) (2015): John Stuart Mill: Über die Freiheit. ( = Klassiker auslegen, Band 47). Berlin: de Gruyter, 33–54.
Robert Paul Wolff, Barrington Moore und Herbert Marcuse (Hrsg.), Kritik der reinen Toleranz. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.