Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Revealed Preference, Mental Disorder, Hardcore Pornography
1 Jul 2018
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1. Warburton mentions the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article
19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How is the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms relevant in this context?
First Ammendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances
Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Charter of rights and freedoms: Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a)
freedom of conscience and religion; (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and
expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (c)
freedom of peaceful assembly; and.
The charter is similar to the others but it doesnt actually say freedom of speech
although “freedom of expression” has included speech as a form of expression. Sets a
precedence that freedom is not as important maybe because it is not specifically
mentioned
2. What are the two main questions addressed in this book?
What is the value of free speech?
What limits should we set to free speech?
3. What is the link between free speech and democracy?
In order to have a legitimate government, everyone who is themselves passionately for
or against a certain policy or position should be able to speak their opinion. Democracy involves
decision making that involves of the citizens. The idea of democracy is that everyone is involved
in the decision making process and people can seriously be involved if they don’t have the
freedom to speak their opinion.
4. What counts as speech?
Talking, writing, media, podcast etc. Anything that is shared with atleast one person.
Spoken in public.
5. Describe the distinction between negative freedom and positive freedom.
Negative freedom: Absence of constraint ex. standup
Positive freedom: freedom to achieve what you want to do ex. Mental blocks
6. What does Herbert Marcuse mean by “repressive tolerance”?
Lack of censorship doesn't mean that free speech will be used in a useful manner.
Everyone has been manipulated by the media that free speech will just lead to people
acting like mouthpieces for the government.
7. When should speech be limited?
When it causes harm by motivating people to harm others. The line where this is drawn
is kind of unsure.
8. Give examples of Warburton’s two types of argument -- instrumental and moral -- for
free speech.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Instrumental: free speech brings tangible benefits like increased happiness or economic
benefits. People need to hear opinions to be involved in democracy.
Moral: It is simply wrong to prevent me from speaking my views (or hearing other
people’s), whether or not good will ensue from what I say, because that would be failure to
respect me as an individual capable of thinking.
9. What are the main facts in the two examples Warburton discusses (the Satanic Verses
and the Danish cartoons)? Why does he describe these two cases?
Satanic Verses: insult muslims, burn copies of the book, protests, fatwa to kill the author,
japanese translator was killed. Book is still sold
Danish Cartoons: protests, violence, burnin danish embassies, large number of deaths, muslim
leaders death threats to cartoonists. “Freedom of expression go to hell”
Ironic because if they are saying “free speech go to hell” while they are using their right to
freedom of expression.
Tutorial 2: Offence and Censorship
Required Reading: Nigel Warburton, Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction, 42-80
Chapter 3: Giving and Taking Offence
1. Explain what blasphemy is, and describe the moral issues surrounding blasphemy
Laws.
● Saying something that is against a certain religion, most often the laws are against
saying things that are offensive to christianity.
● The moral issue is that not all religions are included in laws for blasphemy, and if we
were to do so where would the line be drawed as to which religions should be included
and/or which groups of people
2. What is hate speech? Should it be tolerated?
expression that aims to cause extreme offence and to vilify its target
audience. This is speech or writing, or other expression that is so insulting that it is tantamount
to a form
of harm (though stopping short of direct incitement to violence)
● Hate speech shouldnt be tolerated because it can incite violence and doesn’t serve any
purpose of starting a conversation about important issues
Chapter 4: Censoring Pornography
1. What is pornography?
Pornography is predominantly a kind of image making designed to arouse the viewer sexually
by representing explicit sexual action of some kind, though not all pornography is visual. There
is also audio pornography, which may now take the form of a podcast, and written pornography,
which may now be delivered via a weblog or an Internet download rather than printed. Many
writers in this area distinguish between hardcore pornography that is particularly explicit, and
softcore pornography which sets milder limits on what it depicts.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
2. Is hardcore pornography speech?
● Photographic images of sexual acts aren’t obviously communicative at all
● a legitimizing smokescreen for sexual exploitation.
3. Why would a feminist defend pornography?
(1) pornography gives a panoramic view of sexual
possibilities; (2) pornography allows viewers to experience and imaginatively explore sexual
alternatives safely; and (3) pornography provides different sorts of information about sexual
interaction
from textbooks; pornography allows the viewer to explore their emotional response to a
fantasized
scenario.
4. Is pornography harmful?
● harm to actors in making pornography
● ‘overwhelmingly by poor, desperate, homeless, pimped women who were sexually
abused as children’.
● watching pornography may cause people to commit sex crimes they would not otherwise
have committed.
5. What is legal moralism? What would a legal moralist say about pornography?
● Legal moralism: those who believe that the law should enshrine societal values to the
extent that anything which is morally corrupting or might be seen to undermine the
traditional family and family values should be forbidden by law.
○ This may be motivated by religious beliefs about how all human beings should
live, or by conservative secular ones.
● morally indecent, they tell us, and the world would be a much better place if its
production and consumption were outlawed
● Moral legalists believe that the role of the state is in part to ensure the survival of a
culture, a moral climate, a way of life.
Internet Free Speech
Chapter 5: Free Speech in the Age of the Internet In what ways does the internet
change the question of free speech?
●With internet, everyone can say anything without intermediaries controlling what
they say
●Does restrictions on internet count as restriction on free speech
●Is there dangers of the internet, is the spread of ideas good for society
●This form of exchange of ideas allows people with similar extreme views to get
together and not like a single antisocial individual being told they are crazy by
everyone
Conclusion: The Future of Free Speech 1. How is the case of Socrates relevant to
thinking about free speech?
●He willingly chose to die instead of minding his own bussiness and not exercising
his freedom of speech
●Didn’t believe in controlling free speech in order to control the outcomes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Warburton mentions the first amendment to the united states constitution and article. 19 of the universal declaration of human rights. Article 19: everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The charter is similar to the others but it doesnt actually say freedom of speech although freedom of expression has included speech as a form of expression. In order to have a legitimate government, everyone who is themselves passionately for or against a certain policy or position should be able to speak their opinion. Democracy involves decision making that involves of the citizens. Anything that is shared with atleast one person. Spoken in public: describe the distinction between negative freedom and positive freedom. Positive freedom: freedom to achieve what you want to do ex.
