ABSTRACT
The freedom of speech is basically the right to participate in those communicational activities available in virtue of one's membership of a linguistic community. Since 1859 John Stuart Mill's view of freedom of speech has become widely accepted as part of common democratic attitude towards authoritarian forms of government, and if called upon to defend it many would simply point to modern political regimes such as those of Russia under Stalin and his successors, Germany under Hitler, or China under 'Cultural Revolution', as horrendous examples of what may happen to a society which flouts the principles which Mill championed. What is remarkable about Rousseau's cavalier treatment of the topic, and greatly in advance of his time, is that he sees that it is a mistake to treat freedom of speech as being merely one of many forms of freedom of individual action. The antithesis of freedom of speech is not censorship but excommunication: the denial of the right to participate.
