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For centuries, writers, philosophers and, more recently, jurists and law professors have expounded differing theories on why free expression is essential in an enlightened society. From the constitutive approach of the ancient Greeks and Immanuel Kant (that free speech is an intrinsic good unto itself that furthers individual self-fulfillment) to the instrumental justifications of John Stuart Mill (free speech furthers the search for truth), Oliver Wendell Homes (free speech fosters a “marketplace” of competing ideas) and Professor Alexander Meiklejohn (free speech is necessary for informed self-government), not to mention Spinoza, Alexis de Tocqueville, or feminist analysis, the canon of free speech theory is crowded indeed. Can anything new possibly be said?
This is where Dr. Harry Melkonian’s fascinating book, Freedom of Speech and Society: A Social Approach to Freedom of Expression, enters the fray. In this book, Dr. Melkonian departs from the more-traditional philosophical, political and individual justifications for free speech and examines freedom of expression through the lens of sociology—and, more specifically, the causal sociology of the nineteenth-century thinker Emile Durkheim and the modern writings of Jurgen Habermas. Whereas traditional free speech theories seek to explain why people should have freedom of expression (to promote individual dignity, or ascertain truth or effectively govern ourselves), Dr. Melkonian employs social science to answer a more fundamental question: Why is freedom of expression typically the norm in modern, industrial democracies? As Dr. Melkonian posits below:
“Freedom of expression is both a cause and a consequence of social systems. It is a function of individualization caused by the division of labor in society. Sociology may not explain the virtues of free speech but is more conclusionary—society requires it to function. As the group becomes a collection of autonomous beings fulfilling a more specific role, communication is essential or the social organism can no longer function.”