Martin H. Redish
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804772150
- eISBN:
- 9780804786348
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804772150.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The book presents a unique and controversial rethinking of the intersection between modern American democratic theory and free expression. Most free speech scholars view freedom of expression as a ...
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The book presents a unique and controversial rethinking of the intersection between modern American democratic theory and free expression. Most free speech scholars view freedom of expression as a vehicle for fostering democracy. However, most do so by relying upon communitarian, cooperative or collectivist democratic theories. This book reshapes free speech as an outgrowth of adversary democracy, arguing that individuals should have the opportunity to affect the outcomes of collective decision-making according to their own personal values and interests. Adversary democracy recognizes the inevitability of conflict within a democratic society, as well as the need for regulation of the conflict to prevent the onset of tyranny. In doing so, it embraces pluralism, diversity and individual growth and developmentLess
The book presents a unique and controversial rethinking of the intersection between modern American democratic theory and free expression. Most free speech scholars view freedom of expression as a vehicle for fostering democracy. However, most do so by relying upon communitarian, cooperative or collectivist democratic theories. This book reshapes free speech as an outgrowth of adversary democracy, arguing that individuals should have the opportunity to affect the outcomes of collective decision-making according to their own personal values and interests. Adversary democracy recognizes the inevitability of conflict within a democratic society, as well as the need for regulation of the conflict to prevent the onset of tyranny. In doing so, it embraces pluralism, diversity and individual growth and development
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226662749
- eISBN:
- 9780226662756
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226662756.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter discusses three challenges to the free expression theory that led to the threefold clash of intellectual and moral options. First, the program of civic self-discipline and sublimation ...
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This chapter discusses three challenges to the free expression theory that led to the threefold clash of intellectual and moral options. First, the program of civic self-discipline and sublimation derived from Greco-Roman norms and practiced by English-speaking gentlemen from Locke to Smith to Mill to Holmes is largely in wreckage. Second, postmodernism heralds the breaking of old dams of social and cultural segregation. Third, the credo that anything is permitted because everything in the end advances the public good looks dubious, and the theodicy that pain always bears fruit seems indecent. Modern scientific rationality requires a self capable of impartiality and abstraction. Postmodern cultural relativism stems from the overwhelming blurring of genres and the viral spread of images. Moral absolutism or “fundamentalism” is sick and tired of a patient or solicitous approach to wickedness and crime.Less
This chapter discusses three challenges to the free expression theory that led to the threefold clash of intellectual and moral options. First, the program of civic self-discipline and sublimation derived from Greco-Roman norms and practiced by English-speaking gentlemen from Locke to Smith to Mill to Holmes is largely in wreckage. Second, postmodernism heralds the breaking of old dams of social and cultural segregation. Third, the credo that anything is permitted because everything in the end advances the public good looks dubious, and the theodicy that pain always bears fruit seems indecent. Modern scientific rationality requires a self capable of impartiality and abstraction. Postmodern cultural relativism stems from the overwhelming blurring of genres and the viral spread of images. Moral absolutism or “fundamentalism” is sick and tired of a patient or solicitous approach to wickedness and crime.
