Hate Speech and Self-Restraint

Thompson, Simon

Abstract

© 2019, The Author(s). In this article, my aim is to consider under what circumstances, and for what reasons, individuals may freely choose not to speak hatefully about others. Even if not threatened with legal sanction, why might they decide not to say something which they think they have good reason to say? My suggestion will be that there are various pro tanto reasons for individuals to restrain themselves from saying what they wanted to say. To be specific, I shall argue that such reasons fall into three analytically distinct categories, which I shall describe as normative codes of civility, ethics and morality. Thus each of these codes may provide different sorts of reasons for not engaging in hate speech. My hope is that the results of this investigation may usefully inform a strategy which aims to combat such speech without resource to the law.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 1, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 28, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-06
• Deposit Date: Apr 30, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 29, 2020
• Journal: Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
• Print ISSN: 1386-2820
• Electronic ISSN: 1572-8447
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 657-671
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-019-10004-y
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/849387
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/
• Contract Date: Apr 30, 2019