Author Meets Critics: Matthew Kramer's Freedom of Expression as Self-Restraint

Описание: 5/18/2022, 1:00 pm EDT
Hosted by the PPE Society
Speakers: Matthew H. Kramer, Ishani Maitra, Lawrence Alexander, Geoff Sayre-McCord

In Freedom of Expression as Self-Restraint, Matthew Kramer rigorously expounds the principle of freedom of expression and provides a novel justificatory foundation for it. Under that principle, a system of governance in any society can legitimately prohibit various modes of communication but cannot ever legitimately prohibit them qua modes of communication. As the book argues, such a principle is absolute in that it is exceptionless; it imposes general duties that are binding always and everywhere on every system of governance.

In addition to injecting a new level of philosophical sophistication into the debates over these matters, the book supplies a novel justification for the principle of freedom of expression. It ties that principle to an ideal of governmental self-restraint, and it shows how that ideal connects to the paramount moral responsibility of every system of governance: the responsibility to bring about the political and social and economic conditions under which every member of a society can be warranted in harboring an ample sense of self-respect. In short, compliance by a system of governance with the principle of freedom of expression is integral to the fulfillment of that paramount responsibility.

Event transcript here: https://ppesociety.org/wp-content/upl...

Ishani Maitra's handout here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tf86...