Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or sanction.
video player (source)University of Toronto Free Speech Debate | Jordan Peterson
In the above debate, Jordan Peterson passionately makes the case for freedom of speech 
which I have transcribed below.
A little later in the video , he makes the point that freedom of speech is not just another value but the mechanism by which we keep our psyches and our societies organized.
I also love the way that Jordan describes how free speech works – a sort of “group thinking out loud” in pursuit of a better understanding of the world and ourselves.
And so we need to start talking and listening.
And when you talk it doesn’t mean you’re right.
It doesn’t mean you’re correct. Right?
It means you’re trying to articulate and formulate your thoughts like the boneheaded moron that you are.
And you are going to stumble around idiotically because what the hell do you know.
You are full of biases, and you’re ignorant, and you can’t speak very well, and you’re over-emotional.
And you know you’ve got just problems that you can hardly even imagine that are interfering with your ability to state something clear.
And so what you do is you do your best to see what you mean.
And then you listen to other people tell you why you’re a blithering idiot.
And hopefully, you can correct yourself to some degree as a consequence of listening to them.
And you see that is what free speech is about.
Because it isn’t just that people can organize themselves and their societies by thinking.
You can’t do that because there is only one of you.
What you have to do is you have to articulate your thoughts in a public forum.
So that other people can attack you and hopefully in a corrective manner.
And then you wanna, you know, step back a little bit.
And think okay you know I was a little arrogant there, and a little over-emotional there and I didn’t get that quite right, and maybe I am outright biased on that front.
And you want to correct what you say because then you correct how are you are and then you can correct how you act in life.
And then you correct your society.
And the degree to which we limit freedom of expression we put all of that at risk.
Credit: Jordan Peterson : Transcript from a debate held at the University of Toronto on Free Speech
I don’t believe that freedom of speech is just another value.
I think that is preposterous.
I think that if you claim that then you know nothing about western civilization and history.
Freedom of speech is not just another principle, it is the mechanism by which we keep our psyches and our societies organized and we have to be unbelievably careful about infringing upon that because we are infringing upon the process by which we keep chaos and order balanced and if chaos and order go out of balance then all hell breaks loose and the situation is not good.
Free Speech | Christopher Hitchens (source)
Free Speech vs. The New Intolerance | Rowan Atkinson (source)
The limits to free speech
Just how free should we be to express our opinions – however hateful or harmful?
Germany, for example, has a controversial law that tries to control online hate speech, and many people think that hate speech is free speech.
Even in the US, with its First Amendment, speech isn’t as free as you might think. The list of limitations is long, including libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, non-disclosure agreements, public security, and perjury.
Like most things in life, there are few absolutes Things are nuanced, including freedom of speech.
I can understand the need for limitations such as hate speech legislation, but it is a fine balance. Like Jordan Peterson, to my mind, I feel we need to be extraordinarily careful not to undermine the freedom of speech. It is one of the reasons I am so passionate about the role of dialogue in our lives.
Resources
- Article: What you can’t say.
- Article: Free speech vs. censorship in Germany
- Article: Hate speech is free speech
Posts that link to this post
- Talking Rubbish It is through taking rubbish we make sense of the world
- Freedom of Speech in Universities It's our duty to tolerate colleagues even when they say things that we consider foolish
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There is a useful distinction between repeated bullying words and one-off statements. Freedom of speech has been used to justify repeated name-calling in the workplace, harassing Catholics in East Belfast, blacks in Texas, women in investment banks. In those circumstances it is not an attempt to converse, but to intimidate. Each statement may not amount to hate speech, but the cumulative effect is psychologically damaging. That is why legislation in places like Northern Ireland restricts what can be said or shown in the workplace.
Thanks, David, this is useful and reminds me of what I wrote in my blog some time back
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/freedom-of-speech2
I will update the post above in my blook to include some of this material at some point.