Public Symposium The School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney presents
How Free should Free Speech be? Philosophical Perspectives Convenor: Duncan Ivison --UPDATED PAPER TITLES AND ABSTRACTS-- Simone Chambers (University of Toronto) Civility and Public Reason This paper investigates informal norms of civility that accompany our conceptions of reasoned discourse. When does civility have a chilling effect on speech? Does the sincere wish not to offend, for example, take race off the table as a topic of public conversation? Is there a civil way to express outrage even disgust with the actions of others? Does the presence of injustice relax our expectations of civility? These are some of the questions that will be raised in the course of the paper. Philip Pettit (Princeton) Freedoms of Speech¹ How robust should freedom of speech be? Do you enjoy freedom of speech if you are not frustrated in saying what you happen to want to say? Or must it also be the case that you would not have been frustrated had you said anything else instead, or indeed said nothing? Or, to go to a yet higher pitch, must it also be the case that all this remains true under variations in how benignly others regard you. Must it be the case that it holds robustly and not just by grace of the goodwill of others? The paper argues that ideally freedom of speech should take the full, robust form and it suggests guidelines on how it is best served under progressively non-ideal conditions. Jeremy Waldron (NYU) What Should a Well-Ordered Society Look Like? This paper will approach the question of hate speech (or group defamation) by asking about the importance of appearance, signage and display in a well-ordered society. To what extent, does a well-ordered society convey a message of respect to its citizens in the way it looks? To what extent, is it appropriate for a well-ordered society to forbid the display of contempt or hatred? Some might say that a society's being well-ordered has nothing to do with these issues of appearance. But the paper argues that it is important for citizens to show one another the basics of civic respect. And it argues that is particularly important, by way of reassurance, when a society which is presently well-ordered has a recent history of terror, intolerance and oppression. plus comments by Helen Irving (University of Sydney) and others. Date: Wednesday, 15 July 2009 Place: Refectory, Quadrangle Building, The University of Sydney Time: 1:00pm to 5:00pm (reception to follow) No registration fee, but booking is essential contact: [email protected] Travel subsidies are available for postgraduate students from outside the Sydney region. Please contact Elia Mamprin, via [email protected] The symposium is made possible through the generous support of Professors John and Christine Furedy, alumni of the University of Sydney Symposium website with updated program and running order to be posted soon. -------------- Duncan Ivison Professor, Head of School School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry University of Sydney Quadrangle A14 NSW 2006 Australia 61-2-9351 5658 http://www-personal.arts.usyd.edu.au/duncan.ivison/ivison.htm
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