Speak and Let Speak

Decency and Respect over Political Correctness

The ‘open society’ is currently under attack from two directions: Modern means of communication encourage offensive or hateful comments that do not contribute to an argumentative debate between different positions. On the other hand, social groups are trying to impose their morality on others. They want to enforce certain rules of language and define topics and areas of activity as “politically correct” or exclude them as “politically incorrect”.

This volume develops a counter-strategy inspired by the ideas of John Stuart Mill, Romano Guardini and Axel Honneth. The authors advocate an internal attitude of civility and respect towards other people and their views.