Marketplace of ideas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "marketplace of ideas" is a rationale for freedom of expression based on an analogy to the economic concept of a free market. The "marketplace of ideas" belief holds that the truth or the best policy arises out of the competition of widely various ideas in free, transparent public discourse, an important part of liberal democracy.
The concept of the "marketplace of ideas" is most often attributed to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s dissenting opinion in Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919). Interestingly, while Justice Holmes (1919) implied the idea in his dissenting opinion, he never used the term. Holmes (1919) stated:
| “ | Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want a certain result with all your heart you naturally express your wishes in law and sweep away all opposition...But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas...that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. | ” |
The actual term "marketplace of ideas" was first used in the 1967 Supreme Court decision, Keyishian v. Board of Regents in which the the Court stated that "The classroom is peculiarly the "marketplace of ideas."[1]
Despite these rulings, the concept of the classroom as the "marketplace of ideas" was not born in the twentieth century. As Richard Hofstadter and Walter Metzger (1955) have rightly pointed out, the concept has ancient and nineteenth century roots. The idea can be traced to Socrates and Aristotle. The Socratic Method is the pedagogical embodiment of the "Marketplace of Ideas." In the modern era, John Stuart Mill (On Liberty, 1869) and Thomas Jefferson, provided their own explication of the "marketplace of ideas." Making reference to the University of Virginia Jefferson said, "This institution will be based upon the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it" (Letter, Jefferson to William Roscoe, 1820).
More recently the term has come into use by educators in higher education who have linked the concept to academic freedom.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 605-606 (1967).
