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cultural traditions as influencing freedom of speech, the door is open to introducing sociological theory to inform the dialogue that seeks to reconcile sometimes conflicting rights and interests.
In general, like philosophy, sociological theory is neither definitively correct nor incorrect. Instead, it seeks to explain social behaviour and, like philosophy, various theories coexist in harmony. The arguments in this book will centre on a basic sociological concept that Durkheim believed could explain many aspects of society, namely, the division of labour in society. Durkheim derived a great deal of his ideas from observing the social division of labour found in almost all aspects of modern social life in industrial societies. More recently, Jurgen Habermas’s extensive writing on discourse and communicative theory in the context of modern European society is equally revealing and also establishes the need for both respect and freedom of expression in order for society to function. Habermas extended Durkheim’s arguments by adding the concept that freedom of expression also requires that the speaker be taken seriously by listeners. This argument dovetails into some contemporary arguments concerning human dignity that are normally considered within the constitutive justification for freedom of speech.
At its core, this book will utilise social theory to argue that freedom of expression and its limitations are the natural consequences of division of labour and that the division of labour in society requires freedom of expression. Perhaps the major departure from the philosophical tradition is the argument that freedom of speech, including restrictions necessary for social harmony, is inevitable in contemporary social environments and that without appropriately balanced rights to freedom of expression, society would be impaired.
Philosophy and law encompass far more than freedom of expression and, similarly, sociological theory has an extensive and growing body of literature that ranges over many aspects of the human condition. Within the universe of sociological theorists, only those who dealt with communication were suitable for this work. Two sociologists were selected––one