CORE084 Svoboda projevu

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Radim Bělohrad, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Radim Bělohrad, Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Kateřina Urubková
Supplier department: Department of Philosophy – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites
TYP_STUDIA(BM) && FORMA(P) && !(PROGRAM(B-PH_) || OBOR(FBPHpV))
The course is open to students in the full-time Bachelor's and five-year Master's cycle, except for the Philosophy programme.
The ability to understand academic texts in English.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 100 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/100, only registered: 0/100, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/100
Course objectives
The goal of the course is to introduce students to the value of free speech and the dilemmas that must be faced by anyone who accepts and defends this value.
Learning outcomes
The successful graduate of this course will be able to describe:
- the value of the right to free speech (in the context of a post-communist country);
- the history and philosophical defence of the right to free speech;
- the difficulties in determining the boundary between permissible and harmful speech;
- major terms and concepts with a bearing on free speech issues, such as hate speech, political correctness, cancel culture, identity politics, etc.
- the relationship between freedom of expression and the protection of religious sensibilities, pornography, artistic creation and satire;
- the interrelationship and mutual influence between freedom of expression, the internet and social networks.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction, basic concepts, legal background.
  • 2. Freedom of speech in communist Czechoslovakia.
  • 3. History and philosophical justifications of the right to free speech.
  • 4. Boundaries of free speech, harm, and models of restriction.
  • 5. Free speech and hate speech.
  • 6. Political correctness.
  • 7. Cancel culture and identity politics.
  • 8. Manifestations of the cancel culture.
  • 9. Freedom of speech in Western universities.
  • 10. Freedom of expression and pornography.
  • 11. Freedom of expression and religion.
  • 12. Freedom of expression in the age of the internet and social networking.
  • 13. Prominent cases from the Czech context.
Literature
    recommended literature
  • WARBURTON, Nigel. Free speech : a very short introduction. First published. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, 115 stran. ISBN 9780199232352. info
    not specified
  • Povinná literatura je zadána v interaktivní osnově předmětu.
  • The Oxford handbook of freedom of speech. Edited by Adrienne Stone - Frederick F. Schauer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, xxiii, 584. ISBN 9780198827580. info
  • CHEMERINSKY, Erwin and Howard GILLMAN. Free speech on campus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017, xi, 197. ISBN 9780300226560. info
  • Freedom of speech : the history of an idea. Edited by Elizabeth Powers. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2011, xxv, 227. ISBN 9781611483666. info
Teaching methods
lecture, required readings, discussion
Assessment methods
Final test, pass level 60%.
Náhradní absolvování
The lectures will be recorded and made available in an interactive curriculum. Students can familiarize themselves with them, and they can also study the required literature at a distance. All distance learning materials will be available. Students are required to take the final test in the same format as other students.
Language of instruction
Czech
Study support
https://is.muni.cz/auth/el/phil/jaro2025/CORE084/index.qwarp
Further Comments
Study Materials
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