More Speech: Dialogue Rights and Modern Liberty
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Description
Drawing on modern philosophy of language and on cognitive psychology, Paul Chevigny constructs a ground-breaking argument for free speech and related procedural rights. He makes a case for maximum freedom of expression on the part of individuals and for a corresponding sharing of information on the part of governments, seeing this “dialogue” as a basic right. In emphasizing the need for open inquiry, he focuses on language as the means by which human beings can work together to solve social and political problems. Besides placing his ideas in relation to those of earlier political philosophers—notably John Stuart Mill—Chevigny incorporates insights from such recent and contemporary theorists as Ludwig Wittgenstein, W.V.O. Quine, Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Carol Gilligan. The author argues that “there can be no understanding, no rational decision-making, without open discussion. Society needs the discussion for the same reasons the individual does, and needs to devise means to pull people into the discussion in order to find new contexts and new answers for problems.” He proposes a definition of “modern rationality” as the ability to entertain alternatives, to take a fresh point of view, and insists that the rational approach to interpretation is the one that supplies us with new arguments. He include case studies of irrational government decisions made in Poland, Cuba, and the United States and discusses the unfortunate consequences. More Speech also grapples with the problems of access to the media and to information controlled by the government. By stressing the nature of language in his argument for freedom of expression, Chevigny avoids the more familiar argument based on individual sovereignty. Citing the history of ideological conflict with the socialist world, he argues that the socialist rejection of the notion of individualism demands a new approach to the right of free expression. He states: “I wasn’t to persuade those who are doubtful that there is any really strong ground, outside the accepted arguments of our political system, for criticizing the repressive official; those who think that limiting dissent can contribute to economic or cultural development; those who think that rights are peculiar to alienated bourgeois society, or are not useful where there is a strong sense of community.” Chevigny’s approach is a practical one: he demonstrates that it is in the interest of government, both for the solution of policy problems and for the maintenance of authority, to recognize the right of free expression. The government that refuses to do so for whatever reason, he asserts, will eventually pay the price.
Publication Date
1988
Recommended Citation
Chevigny, Paul G., "More Speech: Dialogue Rights and Modern Liberty" (1988). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 98.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/98
