PHI 2630 1st Edition Lecture 5 Outline of Last Lecture II Stanford s Regulation of Speech III Why the Regulation is In Line with the First Amendment IV Why Face to Face Insults are not Worthy of First Amendment Protection a Immediacy of Injury b Purpose of the First Amendment V Factors that Indicate the Non Speech Provoking Character of the Attacks a Visceral Emotional Response b Pre Emptive Nature c Societal Position of Victims d Double Standard Outline of Current Lecture VI The First Amendment and Constitutionally Unprotected Categories VII Harm Principle a Mill s reason for protecting free speech b Expressive Harm VIII Nadine Strossen Why Censoring Pornography Would Not Reduce Discrimination or Violence Against Women a Assumptions Pro Censorship Feminists Make i Exposure leads to violence ii Suppression would reduce violence iii Censorship would effectively suppress pornography b Four Types of Evidence Relied on by Pro Censorship Advocates to Make the Causal Connection i Lab Research ii Correlational Data iii Anecdotal Data iv Studies of Sex Offenders Current Lecture I The First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances a Constitutionally unprotected categories i Libel ii Incitement to lawlessness iii Obscenity iv Fighting words II Harm Principle A liberty limiting principle according to which a government may justifiably pass laws to limit the liberty of its citizens in order to prohibit individuals from causing harm to other individuals or to society a Harm an action causes harm if it directly undermines the rights of another person or a group of people related to one s interested being frustrated or defeated b Any speech or conduct that willfully or negligently interferes with important interests or rights of other is harmful conduct The state is entitled to pass laws against conduct that deliberately or negligently interferes with the rights of others just so long as the rights violation is sufficiently serious and the harm cannot effectively be prevented by other less costly means for example through public education or debate c John Stuart Mill On Liberty the sole end for which mankind are warranted individual or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self protection That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others i His own good either physical or moral is not a sufficient warrant ii There ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing as a matter of ethical conviction any doctrine however immoral it may be considered d Relevant issues the nature of harm physical mental economic etc degrees of harm e Mill s reason for protecting free speech i Free speech both 1 promotes autonomy and 2 is reflection of individual autonomy and human equality 1 1 Allowing a lot of free speech both promotes autonomy insofar as allowing people to say what they want will have the causal consequence that they will be able to say what they want 2 2 Their ability to say what they want is what constitutes their autonomy f Pursuit of truth and knowledge and the importance of public discussion i The pursuit of truth and knowledge are also valuable because they re a means to happiness and in themselves Free speech encourages the pursuit of truth and knowledge g Democratic efficient and just government i The government should be somewhat representative of the people Insofar as we can gain an idea of what the people think will give politicians the ability to represent them h Expressive Harm harm that derives from the kind of attitude expressed e g racist sexist etc in the very act of hate speech it is independent of the causal effects of such a speech act i This is a way to incorporate things that may not obviously cause harm into the harm principle III The assumption that censoring pornography would reduce sexism and violence against women rests on three other assumptions a 1 That exposure to sexist violent imagery leads to sexist violent behavior i This asserted causal connection cannot be proven Even if we assumed that there is a causal connection it would still not follow that censoring pornography would reduce sexism or violence due to flaws in the remaining two assumptions b 2 That the effective suppression of pornography would significantly reduce exposure to sexist violent imagery and i Even if pornography was completely suppressed the sexist violent imagery that pervades the mainstream media would remain untouched and we would not therefore solve the issue ii Attempts to suppress pornography will just drive it underground not eradicate it c 3 That censorship would effectively suppress pornography IV Four types of evidence relied on by pro censorship to prove the causal link a Lab research showing the attitudinal effects of showing various types of sexually explicit materials to volunteer subjects usually male college students i Marcia Pally s book draws from different lab studies and concludes that no credible evidence substantiates a clear causal connection between any type of sexually explicit material and any sexist or violent behavior ii Experiments also failed to establish any link between women s exposure to such materials and their development of negative self images b Correlational data concerning availability of sexually oriented materials and antifemale discrimination or violence i There simply are no consistent correlations While the asserted correlation would not be sufficient to prove the claimed causal connection it is necessary to prove that connection Therefore the existence of the alleged causal relationship is conclusively refuted by the fact that levels of violence and discrimination against women are often inversely related to the availability of sexually explicit materials including violent sexually explicit materials c Anecdotal data consisting of accounts by sex offenders and their victims concerning any role that pornography may have played in the offenses i Many pro censorship advocates attempt to rest their case on self
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