“Freedom of Speech” as a Threat to Liberal Democracy: Notes on Stanley Fish’s Critique

Abstract

In his polemic and seminal book, There´s No Such Thing as a Free Speech and It´s a Good Thing, Too, Stanley Fish argued that the advocates of an unrestrained, absolute freedom of speech ended up weakening the very same thing they intended to defend: liberal democracy. Following, dissecting and analyzing Fish's arguments, this essay intends to show that, from a philosophical perspective, a universal, strong advocacy of free speech is untenable, since it inevitably slips on utilitarian and consequentialist grounds.  From an empirical point of view, too, whilst defending unrestricted free speech, their universalistic advocates systematically fail to stick to the principles on which their position is grounded: tolerance, neutrality and negativity. Instead, their arguments end up being political, partial and partisan, as Stanley Fish helps us to acknowledge. However, contrary to Fish's conclusions, this essay argues that it is precisely that partisan logic, that political struggle, that makes unwise to fully disregard "free speech" as a higher value.