An Analysis of the Ethical Groundwork of Franklyn Haiman's 'Speech and Law in a Free Society.'

A quick reading of Franklyn Haiman's writings on ethics and free speech would suggest many disparities in his early conception of the ethical communicator and in his conception of free speech and the activity it allows in a democracy. In the material on ethics, Haiman addresses the ideal of how people ought to communicate with others in an ethical way in a democratic society. In the work on free speech, he focuses upon the role that the state should play in regulating the communication activity within a democracy. Haiman argues, for example, that the state should act not to prevent speech but to protect speech. He further suggests that the state should act essentially to protect all speech, not just ethical speech. The congruency of these two views can be exemplified in thinking of the key virtues that ought to animate citizens in the democracy as they go about their roles as active participants in the polis. Haiman calls for the citizen communicator to be a person of great practical wisdom who uses the intellect to develop a habitual pattern of behavior in which communication activities are guided by the robust virtues of proper pride, rational decision making and action, and tolerance. (HOD)