ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on John Stuart Mill, and on his vision of liberal community that emerges, in fits and starts, in On Liberty. He outlines some rather abstract problems for theories of free speech, including Mill’s. The author then outlines three challenges of a more abstract or conceptual nature to the free-speech theory, Location Challenge, Internal Norm Challenge, and Convention Challenge. These challenges may indicate that the ultimate focus of scholars concern over free speech is not obvious. But there are other, more first-order problems for Mill’s liberal account. The author outlines three of them. The first problem concerns a striking tension between two conditions which emerge early on in On Liberty. This is called as Invasiveness Problem. The second problem with Mill’s theory concerns truth-promotion in particular. This is called as the Sub-Optimality Problem. The third problem is the Vulnerability Problem.
