Courting the abyss : free speech and the liberal tradition
John Durham Peters (Author)
Courting the Abyss updates the philosophy of free expression for a world that is very different from the one in which it originated. The notion that a free society should allow Klansmen, neo-Nazis, sundry extremists, and pornographers to spread their doctrines as freely as everyone else has come increasingly under fire. At the same time, in the wake of 9/11, the Right and the Left continue to wage war over the utility of an absolute vision of free speech in a time of increased national security. Courting the Abyss revisits the tangled history of free speech, finding resolutions
Print Book, English, 2020
Paperback edition View all formats and editions
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2020
History
viii, 309 pages ; 23 cm
9780226717784, 022671778X
1117624832
Introduction: hard-hearted liberalism
Saint Paul's shudder
"Evil be thou my good": Milton and abyss-redemption
Publicity and pain
Homeopathic machismo in free speech theory
Social science as public communication
"Watch, therefore": suffering and the informed citizen
"Meekness as a dangerous activity": witnessing as participation
Conclusion: responsibility to things that are not