Free Speech: All That Matters

Description

What is free speech?; Why does it matter? These are pressing questions. In this book, Alan Haworth outlines and analyses the main arguments philosophers have advanced over the centuries, in an attempt to answer them clearly. He emphasises the strengths but also the weaknesses of those arguments, demonstrating that an understanding of both is essential if one is to to grasp the true nature and value of free speech. The contemporary debate over free speech tends to be clouded by rhetoric. Against that, Haworth stands back and takes a cool look at the issues. This book comes down on the side of clarity. It is an essential primer on an important topic.

While at London Metropolitan University, Alan Haworth developed and taught courses in Political Philosophy, Ethics, and the History of Ideas. He is a regular contributor to The Philosophers Magazine. His books include Free Speech (Routledge, 1998) which is described by Mind as 'very important'. The Times Higher Esucation Supplement reviewer said of his textbook Understanding The Political Philosophers (Routledge, 2004, 2008) that he became 'so absorbed in the text... I found myself reading it for pure intellectual pleasure'.