Free Speech and Its Limits: From Socrates to Cancel Culture

This course examines the enduring tension between free expression and its boundaries, from Socrates' trial and Jesus' execution to today's debates about cancel culture. Students will explore the ethical and political challenges of free speech in a world of deep disagreement, considering the virtues required to speak freely and truthfully as members of democratic and other communities. Through philosophical and historical inquiry, we ask what freedom, and especially freedom of speech, means and demands for civic life today.