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Speech and Harm

Speech and Harm Controversies Over Free Speech

Author: Ishani Maitra; Mary Kate McGowan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199236275
Published In: May 2012
Format: Paperback , 280 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Illuminates the social and political issues surrounding free speech
New essays written by a leading team of experts
Draws on a wide range of approaches and methods
Clear and accessible--will be of interest to general readers

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, does our 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 relationship between 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 allegedly harmful speech.

Readership: Scholars and advanced students of philosophy.

Contents
Catharine MacKinnon: Foreword
1: Ishani Maitra and Mary Kate McGowan: Introduction and Overview
2: Andrew Altman: Freedom of Expression and Human Rights Law: The Case of Holocaust Denial
3: Katharine Gelber: 'Speaking Back': The Likely Fate of Hate Speech Policy in the United States and Australia
4: Ishani Maitra: Subordinating Speech
5: Mary Kate McGowan: On 'Whites Only' Signs and Racist Hate Speech: Verbal Acts of Racial Discrimination
6: Rae Langton: Beyond Belief: Pragmatics in Hate Speech and Pornography
7: Laura Beth Nielsen: Power in Public: Reactions, Responses and Resistance to Offensive Public Speech
8: Lynne Tirrell: Genocidal Language Games
9: Caroline West: Words that Silence? Freedom of Expression and Racist Hate Speech
Index

Edited by Ishani Maitra, University of Michigan, and Mary Kate McGowan, Wellesley College

Ishani Maitra is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, Newark and New Brunswick. She received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She works in philosophy of language, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of law.

Mary Kate McGowan is Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. She received her PhD from Princeton. She works in metaphysics, philosophy of language, feminism, and philosophy of law.

Contributors:
Andrew Altman, Georgia State University
Katherine Gelber, University of Queensland
Rae Langton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ishani Maitra, University of Michigan
Catharine MacKinnon, University of Michigan Law School
Mary Kate McGowan, Wellesley College
Laura Beth Nielsen, American Bar Foundation/ Northwestern University.
Lynne Tirrell, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Caroline West, University of Sydney