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Res Publica (2011) 17:91106
DOI 10.1007/s11158-011-9145-3
John Horton
Published online: 27 January 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract This article seeks to explore the conceptual structure and moral standing of an idea that has received almost no attention from analytical philosophers: self-censorship. It is argued that at the heart of the concept is a tension between the thoughts of the self-censor as, on the one hand, the author, and on the other, the instrument, of the censorship. Which of these aspects is emphasised also importantly helps shape how self-censorship is viewed normatively. Focusing on authorship tends to lead to seeing self-censorship as more akin to a freely chosen act of self-restraint, while focusing on the self-censor as instrument presents it as one specic form of ordinary censorship. It is the tension between these two aspects that accounts for the moral ambivalence that is often felt towards the practice of self-censorship.
Keywords Authorship Autonomy Censorship Freedom of expression
Self-censorship
We live in a culture that tends to be suspicious of any kind of censorship. At the very least, generally speaking, censorship is thought to be something that stands in need of justication, which does not of course mean that there are no circumstances in which it can ever be justied. Only a few First Amendment fundamentalists hold to something like that. But, especially among those of a broadly liberal persuasion, certainly where mature adults are concerned, the burden of justication is taken to be a demanding one. This has not been so for much of the past and is far from true everywhere in the world today. Freedom of expression is not equally valued in all
J. Horton (&)
School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UKe-mail: [email protected]
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cultures, but it is widely held to be one of the central values of societies like our own. This does not mean that even in the most liberal societies censorship does not happen, whether justied or not; and inevitably there are sometimes sharp disagreements, both practical and philosophical, about when, how far and on what grounds censorship is justiedfor example, in contexts like post-9/11 anxieties (real or manufactured) about terrorism, the so-called culture wars, or out...