Skip to main navigationSkip to main content
The University of Southampton
Humanities

Philosophy, Politics & Economics Annual Lecture Event

Lisa Herzog
Time:
18:00
Date:
9 March 2021
Venue:
Online via Microsoft Teams

For more information regarding this event, please email Tracy Storey at tps@southampton.ac.uk .

Event details

The first of our Philosophy, Politics and Economics Lecture will be given by Professor Lisa Herzog who is an Associate Professor at the University of Groningen.

'What's wrong with the "marketplace of ideas"?

Metaphors from the past can have a long-lasting influence on current political thought and political practice. In this talk, I discuss the example of the "marketplace of ideas", which has been very influential in US jurisprudences and continues to be evoked in current contexts, e.g., in debates about the regulation of the internet. But as a metaphor, it does not quite work – exchanges of ideas are different from exchanges of goods and services. And in fact, when Milton wrote that we should let "truth and falsehood grapple," he had in mind more a battle than a marketplace. But a "battle of ideas" requires individuals, as the bearers of ideas, to behave in certain ways, making sports competitions a more appropriate metaphor. Instead of being captivated by any of these metaphors, we need to acknowledge that the fields in which ideas are exchanged differ, with regard to individuals' motivation, the appropriateness of regulation, and the temporal dynamics. The debate about speech and its regulation needs to focus on clarifying the delineations between these fields, and the rules and norms that are appropriate within and between them.

This lecture will take place via Microsoft Teams. Please ensure you book a place to receive the meeting link. The deadline for bookings is 1pm on 09/03/2021.

Privacy Settings