The Importance Of Freedom Of Speech

He feels that the opinions of mankind should be heard, even in instances were they differ from one another. (Mill 1) Mill thinks that a person, who knows only their side of the story, does not know nearly enough to come to a good conclusion. A person cannot know his or her own position until he or she knows the opposing position. Mill explained that anyone who would suppress someone else’s voice needs to have an argument that they can be absolutely certain, without doubt, about. (Mill 2) This is part of the infallibility argument. The bottom line is no one is infallible, because there is no way to be absolutely certain whether or not what we believe is true or false. (Mill 1) If there is any suppressing or silencing of discussion, it is an assumption of infallibility. If we are all fallible, how is it that we can say any argument is greater than any other? Technically we cannot, because we can be wrong about any and everything. (Mill

First, Mill pointed out that everyone has their own judgments and no one has the right to decide an issue for all people. The liberty of an opinion is often up for debate because we are all confident in our own rightness, even though that confidence is not justified. “They have no authority to decide the question for all mankind, and exclude every other person from the means of judging. To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.” (Mill, II.3). Mill pointed out that silencing a potentially true idea hurts society because it is shielded from that possible truth. You never can

Mills of course does not just mean amiable discussions regarding similar opinions but focuses on the importance of protecting dissenting viewpoints. Mill claims that “opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility” (Mills, 88). This is is to protect against what Mill calls social tyranny of the majority. Social Tyranny of the majority is when the majority viewpoint dominants what happens in a society and silences or ignores any other minority opinion or idea (Mill). This silencing of discussion can lead to the stagnation of society as the flow of civilization follows the majority rule and is not advanced through the development and understanding of dissenting viewpoints. Mill recognizes that truth is a fluid topic, with every person developing their own truths based off lived experience and what is important to them, not one person can claim to know the whole truth. Just because the majority views the truth one way, does not mean the minority is wrong and should not be treated as such. Censoring of these viewpoints does not make the majority any more correct, it just closes down a way to view something differently which may improve the majority

Without freedom of speech, a dominant social group will generate norms and laws, because humans are naturally inclined to conform. For Mill, conformity means unfreedom. In order to be free, one must think for oneself. Therefore, a society that pushes one opinion and silences all others is illegitimate, according to Mill, because this environment easily circulates tyranny of the majority and, ultimately, despotism. So, Mill argues that “if all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” Withholding one opinion from being heard is unfair to, not only the opinion-holder, but all of humanity. Humans must be given free reign to speak their mind because new opinions foster individuality and allow society to move closer to

The main arguments that Mill presents in favor of his view in favor of almost complete freedom of expression. First, allowing government censorship allows for the government to act with infallibility to what is right or true. To refuse hearing opposing opinions because the government is sure the belief to be false is to assume that their certainty is absolute certainty. Instead, allowing for near unlimited freedom of expression allows for the consideration of thoughts. This allows us as citizens to evaluate and critique other government and our own governments that have been wrong in the past. By allowing for the presentation of contrary views, we as humans can be aware of past mistakes and come to know the truth. For example, allowing for Galileo arguing that the Earth revolves around the Sun allowed for correcting the false belief that the Earth is at the center of the universe. While this allowance can lead to risky behaviors, prejudices or other harms, Mill hold that regardless, it is worth these risks and challenges because this can lead to finding truths or correcting truths. Second, Mill argues that allowing for falsehoods to be spoken, even if wholly false, can have some kernels of truth that lead to truths for that issue or truths of other issues. Suppressing speech can lead to

Mill illustrates the idea, saying, “Their conclusion may be true, but it might be false for anything they know: they have never thrown themselves into the mental position of those who think differently from them, and considered what such persons may have to say…” Therefore, a belief without reason provides people the opportunity to be criticized and ridiculed by others who went out and researched the facts and can provide a legitimate argument against one’s viewpoints based on facts. Without facts, people simply go with the flow and believe something to be true based on popularity rather than thinking about what the belief in particular would actually mean. Mill further expresses his idea using an example of doctrine, “The doctrine has taken its place, if not as a received opinion, as one of the admitted sects or divisions of opinion; those who hold it have generally inherited, not being now an exceptional fact, occupies little place in the thoughts of their professors”(p. 33). The idea pertains to doctrine or saying a creed spoken in church because people in today’s society simply tend to just go through the motions during a service rather than ponder the meaning behind the words being said. That is why it is important to not just go through the motions, but someone must also think about the meaning behind words being

In the next paragraph Mill begins by explaining why silencing opinions can be detrimental to humanity and highlights that we can never be sure that the opinion(s) that we are attempting to stifle are indeed false and that even if we

Regarding Mill’s argument “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind,” the justification for this statement is to present his ideology on the subject of free speech. According the text ‘On Liberty’ by John Stuart Mill, his position with respect to free speech is that even one person had a specific opinion, mankind is not given grounds to silence him. Mill’s argument regarding free speech is valid because he protects the liberty of the individual over the popular opinion of society. I agree with Mill’s point of view because I also believe that everyone should have the voice to express what they wish,

As citizens of the United States of America we as human beings have certain unalienable rights listed in The Declaration of Independence, among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And among our many liberties one of them listed in our constitution in the 1st amendment is the right to freedom of speech. However, like many liberties, freedom of speech is not absolute under the supreme law of land. What this means is that yes we do have freedom of speech, but it is not protected by the government if it includes obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, true threats and speech integral to already criminal conduct. White, K. (2017, June 08) Speech is an important part of our democracy, it gives us the right to speak freely

Lastly, Philio Gabriel (2010) stated that Mill’s book ‘On Liberty’ highlighted the application of liberty. Basically, the application of liberty itself is limited to all individuals. By owning a gun, it is strictly need to keep all the personal information of the individuals. The liberty is there but is blocked by the authority. Besides, Mill believed that individuals are not accountable towards the society but answerable towards their behaviour either it is harmful or otherwise. Meanwhile, Mill agreed that any harmful behaviour in voicing out opinions like business is somehow bring an advantages towards the society will be considered fine. Hence, “individuals’ happiness is attained by living in a civilized society whereas individuals are free to engage

Every citizen of the United States of America should be able to express one of their most important rights of an american for society's right to speech. The first amendment is one of the essential rights that americans have. The first Amendment is key the detail to the use of democracy and the respect of our human rights . This amendment describes the inalienable rights of the citizens of the United States. If American citizens are unable to criticize the government, it would be impossible to regulate order. When you read or hear about freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of press also comes to mind which are also very important for the United States democracy. According to the “Derechos, Human Rights”, freedom of speech is one of the most dangerous rights, because it means the freedom to express one's discontent with the status and request to change it (Freedom of speech 1). These types of rights are protected by many organizations such as ACLU and UNESCO. Both of these organizations working “daily in legislatures and communities to defend and preserve our individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in America” ( free speech 1). Freedom of speech is very valuable or at least it should be, because without this right the people wouldn’t be able to express themselves or say what they feel or want for a better life. United States is one of the countries that protect this right, but in the world there are governments that do not respect and do not know that this right even exists. Without the right of amendment one the united states would not be called a democracy because they both depend on each other.This is why Amendment 1 of the constitution is the most compelling for americans today.

Out of all the rights given to we Americans in the Bill of Rights, the first amendment includes the most cherished one: the freedom of speech. Freedom of speech gives citizens the right to express their own opinions publicly without government interference, violating laws, or inciting any kind of violence or rebellion. However, the first amendment does not mean anyone can simply say whatever they want. There are several topics that are strictly scrutinized by law and there are even some situations in which freedom of speech is lawfully restricted. Freedom of speech is an extremely important part of the constitution that we value highly, but there are obvious things that are allowed and not allowed that go with it.

The right to freedom of speech is one of the most important and valuable rights we have as Americans. Freedom of speech is an essential right which doesn’t include hate speech, so the limits of this right have been questioned throughout history and is not secluded to one era of time. From Martin Luther King giving his “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963, to Colin Kaepernick taking a knee in the current NFL Justice for All protest, people want their voices to be heard without interruption, and for justice to be served without being silenced and feeling punished for doing so.

Freedom of speech is the right to articulate one's ideas and opinions without fearing government sanction,retaliation or censorship. The phrase 'freedom of speech' is to include any act of receiving, seeking and conveying ideas, or information regardless the medium that people are using. Freedom of speech and expression has a long history is predated current international and regional law of human rights with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuse of this freedom as shall be defined by law. Everyone has the right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Today freedom of speech or the freedom of expression, is recognized in international and regional human rights law. The article tell about the free speech with amendment implication of other expression such as Quran burning and racist demonstration. In the Washington article "Free Speech: Westboro church supreme court case test First Amendment", Warren Richey examines about the freedom of speech in the U.S. The auther tell story about the fight between two of the world great religions- christianity and islam. No one have the rights to talk about someone religion or culture. We always give respect to everyone culture or religion. The told that when the news come in front of people about the Quran burning and the flag, the people start protest about it and stand for it to safe the Quran anf the falg.Even though many of us believe that U.S needs more restriction on offensive speech, I maintain that the country does, not because of democracy and social interaction, free speech on university campuses, tolerence in a diverse socity.

The argument Mill makes is characterized by a few premises. The first is that society is known to enforce opinions and beliefs upon the individual in hopes of maintaining a utilitarian good based upon a common set of truths that the society believes in. Due to this, individual liberty is often suppressed for the good of everyone else. When someone has dissenting views, they will be suppressed by the majority. Yet Mill’s believes that dissent is good because it helps to progress society by disconfirming our believes through listening and reasoning with those who are different. By addressing different views, people are able to develop their own ideas and as a society we are able to reach a better understanding of a utilitarian truth. For Mill, humans are not