Campus speech, diverse perspectives, and the distribution of burdens

Mill’s defense of free speech rests on the idea of a competition amongst arguments and ideas. We should avoid censoring speech, Mill argues, because we might find that unpopular ideas are in fact true, and even if they are wrong, they may help us come up with better arguments for better ideas. This is a compelling model of speech, both because it offers an interesting procedural account for how we might expand the stock of knowledge and arguments, and it provides an optimistic account of progress through opposition.