The Marketplace of Ideas and the Agora
Herodotus on the Power of Isegoria
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9435494 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lindsay Mahon Rathnam (0000-0002-6724-9105, Duke Kunshan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 117 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 140-152 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003055422000661 |
| OpenAlex | W4285900080 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 52 |
Popular discourse about freedom of speech tends to default to the metaphor of the marketplace of ideas, notwithstanding empirical evidence undermining this concept. Its persistence illustrates the profound attachment freedom of speech inspires, despite the difficulty of justifying it in epistemic terms. I suggest that the ancient Greek historian Herodotus offers a compelling alternative to the marketplace metaphor with his account of isegoria at Athens. In Herodotus’s telling, Athenian equal right of speech is worthwhile not because of its effects on speech but because of its effect on political culture; equal speech energizes the Athenians and Athens. He thus offers a nonepistemic defense of the right to speak, defending it instead in terms of power and belonging. Yet his account also highlights how Athenian equal speech unleashes political harms and therefore offers a way to defend free speech without minimizing its dangers. Herodotus thus helps us productively reframe contemporary free speech debates
Aesthetics · Agora · Cognitive reframing · Linguistics · Metaphor · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Computer Science · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought · Social Psychology
Free Speech and Democracy in Ancient Athens
Aristagoras (5.49–55, 97)
The trouble with the Ionians
Why Liberalism Failed
Free Expression or Equal Speech?
Mere Civility
Against Democracy
John Stuart Mill and the “Marketplace of Ideas”
Herodotus and Athens
‘I didn’t give my own genealogy’
The China Model
Greek Political Thought
Textual Rivals
The Historical Method of Herodotus
The competition of ideas
On Mill, Infallibility, and Freedom of Expression
Deliberation and Discussion in Classical Athens
J. S. Mill's Doctrine of Freedom of Expression
The "Recent" Prominence of Themistocles
Figures of Inquiry in Herodotus's Inquiries
Ethnography and Empire
Themistocles' Place in Athenian Politics
Herodotus. An Interpretative Essay
The Advent of Pluralism
Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus
Brill's Companion to Herodotus
On the Use of Greek History for Life
Legitimate Opposition, Ostracism, and the Law of Democracy in Ancient Athens
Herodotean Realism
Democratic Theory and the Athenian Public Sphere
The Concept of Isēgoria
The Madness of Cambyses
Free Speech and Hate Speech
Form and Thought in Herodotus
The Power of the Multitude
Democracy's Dignity
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |