The opinion/acts distinction and the fire example
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Posted by John Furedy on 15:52:37 2008/03/27
In Reply to:
Re: Speech freedom should not be restircted, but the punishments from censuring are many posted by Rank
Rank,
For your fire-in-a-crowded room example (well known in philosophical discussions of freedom of speech) see my "Mill/Voltaire" paper: http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/furedy/Papers/af/Academic%20Freedom.doc. This, as you'll see, referred specifically to the Canadian campus problem as the speech codes on campus (and the hate speech laws in society) were installed. I think it is just as relevant to-day as it was then.
The fire example is one I woulod classify as an act that directly produces violence. The same goes for a verbal threat to kill someone in circumstances where this is plausible (an implausible example would be a 5 foot unarmed woman threatining to "kill"" her 6 foot husband).
In addition, of course, speech is not "free"" in the sense that if it found ot be libelous in a court of (legitimate law, not a human right commission), then there is a penalty.
Note, however, that the comfort of the person being criticised or censured is irrelevant in a free society, though not in a velvet totalitarian one (which supports concepts like "hate speech"" or attempts to distinguish between those who are allowed to state controversial opinions and those who are not).
All the best, John
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