Liberal prudence in the new market of ideas: Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill and the contemporary pitfalls of an unrestricted domain of speech*

Abstract

We aim to persuade the reader that Smith and Mill’s conceptions of freedom of speech are not as radically libertarian as most contemporary activists would expect, while also pointing critically at the elitist and somewhat romantic framework which both authors presuppose in order to defend the connection between an open space for expression and the liberal, institutional, progress of the public sphere. We claim that this model (notwithstanding its immense importance for the development of freedom of press and education in the 20th Century) has become increasingly unable to provide regulatory and moderating clues for late modern challenges.

Keywords

• elitism
• freedom of speech
• hate speech
• liberal prudence
• open institutionalism