THE DEFENSE OF BASIC LIBERTIES I Mill

Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion It will be convenient for the argument, if, instead of at once entering upon the general thesis, we confine ourselves in the first instance to a single branch of it… This one branch is the Liberty of Thought: from which it is impossible to separate the cognate liberty of speaking and of writing. On Liberty, page 16

The Fallibility Argument The opinion which it is attempted to suppress by authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but the are not infallible. 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. Its condemnation may be allowed to rest on this common argument, not the worse for being common. On Liberty, page 19

The Fallibility Argument 1. Truth is generally valuable. 2. Censors are fallible. 3. If (1) and (2), then censorship is generally impermissible. 4. [So] Censorship is generally impermissible.

The Fallibility Argument The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic… The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. Schneck v. Unites States

The Fallibility Argument …even opinions lose their immunity, when the circumstances in which they are expressed are such as to constitute their expression a positive instigation to some mischievous act. An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor… ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer. On Liberty, page 57

The Fallibility Argument 1. Truth is generally valuable. 2. Censors are fallible. 3. If (1) and (2), then censorship is generally impermissible. 4. [So] Censorship is generally impermissible.

The Fallibility Argument The objection likely to be made to this argument, would probably take some such form as the following. There is no greater assumption of infallibility in forbidding the propagation of error, than in any other thing which is done by public authority on its own judgment and responsibility. Judgment is given to men that they may use it… If we were never to act on our opinions, because those opinions may be wrong, we should leave all our interests uncared for, and all our duties unperformed. On Liberty, page 20

The Fallibility Argument I answer, that it is assuming very much more. There is the greatest difference between presuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not been refuted, and assuming its truth for the purpose of not permitting its refutation. Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion, is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action; and on no other terms can a being with human faculties have any rational assurance of being right. On Liberty, page 21

The Fallibility Argument 1. Truth is generally valuable. 2. Censors are fallible. 3. If (1) and (2), then censorship is generally impermissible. 4. [So] Censorship is generally impermissible.

The Free Market Argument The beliefs which we have most warrant for, have no safeguard to rest on, but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded… we may hope that if there be a better truth, it will be found when the human mind is capable of receiving it; and in the mean time we may rely on having attained such approach to truth, as is possible in our own day. This is the amount of certainty attainable by a fallible being, and this the sole way of attaining it. On Liberty, page 23

The Free Market Argument 1. Truth is generally valuable. 2. Censorship lowers the net amount of truth. 3. If (1) and (2), then censorship is generally impermissible. 4. [So] Censorship is generally impermissible.

The Free Market Argument The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas—that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. Abrams v. United States

The Free Market Argument 1. Truth is generally valuable. 2. Censorship lowers the net amount of truth. 3. If (1) and (2), then censorship is generally impermissible. 4. [So] Censorship is generally impermissible.

The Free Market Argument We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. On Liberty, page 19

The Free Market Argument 1. Truth is generally valuable. 2. Censorship lowers the net amount of truth. 3. If (1) and (2), then censorship is generally impermissible. 4. [So] Censorship is generally impermissible.