From Toleration to Freedom of Expression by Prof. Onora O'Neill

The University of Edinburgh; Gifford Lecture 2013

While I was waiting to go in and lead a seminar last week, I picked up a pamphlet in the lobby or waiting room (I forget what it's called) but in this room was an advert/pamphlet for the Gifford Lecture by Prof. Onora O' Neill or Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve - I have never heard of her - and what caught my eye was the title of the lecture: 'From Toleration to Freedom of Expression'.


In the pamplet, was a little abstract:
"Communication has myriad purposes but two are ubiquitous. One is theoretical: we hope (and often need) to judge whether others' claims are true or false. The other is practical: we hope (and often need) to judge whether others' commitments are trustworthy or untrustworthy. Yet many contemporary discussions of speech rights and speech wrongs seem ambivalent or indifferent to norms that matter for judging truth and trustworthiness.

In the early modern period, arguments were put toward for tolerating others' speech, even if untrue or untrustworthy. These arguments often maintain that tolerating falsehood helps the discovery of truth. By contrast, contemporary views of speech rights stress various freedoms, in particular freedom of expression, yet seem to marginalise both the space for toleration, and the importance of truth and trustworthiness. If everyone has rights to free speech, or indeed to self-expression, toleration can come to be seen as a minimal matter, rather than as a demanding and epistemically important virtue. Has the contemporary focus on the speech rights of individuals distracted us from wider ethical and epistemic issues that bear on truth and trustworthiness, and on their communication?"


I would be curious what she has to say about context. "Truth" and "Trustworthiness" are contingent upon the context of who, when, and where something is being said and with those variables the significance of "truth" and "trustworthiness" will vary. And of course ethical and epistemic issues arise in delibertions of crime and justice, as well as in representative accounts of politics and international issues in the media. I wonder what her examples would be... i.e. who's falsehoods are you tolerating? 


*Update (Nov. 5): Rowan Williams will also be delivering a series of Gifford Lectures on 'Language, reality and religion'. more info here