The First, by Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish has taught long enough and published enough that his reputation is just about unassailable.  I won't say he doesn't care what people think about what he says, but in The First: How to Think About Hate Speech, Campus Speech, Religious Speech, Fake News, Post-Truth, and Donald Trump, Fish take positions that his colleagues in the academic community might look askance at.

For the rest of us nonacademics, Fish offers a perspective that forces us to stop and think, maybe nodding in agreement, or maybe saying, "Not so fast."  The concept of freedom of speech is much talked about, but often misunderstood.  Against popular perception, "absolutely free speech is the outlier case; constrained speech is the norm."  The settings in which we speak present necessary and proper constraint.  Further, the very "values free speech supports" sometimes require us to "curtail speech deemed to be subversive of those values."

In the university setting, Fish argues that "Freedom of speech is not an academic value; freedom of inquiry is, and freedom of inquiry requires the silencing of voices."  Universities have tied themselves in knots trying to be solicitous of every view, but the policing of speech frequently goes too far.  "Calling out micro-aggressions amounts to a game of 'Gotcha!'  There will always be something an instructor says that offends someone, and according to the logic of micro-aggressions, he or she deserves to be condemned for saying it."

Forgive me if I make Fish sound like a right-winger.  He's not; it's just that in the current environment of campus speech, the suppression of right-wing views gets the most press.  Neither is he a fan of Trump, but he recognizes the absurdity of the criticism of Trump supporters on campus.  Altogether, you won't find a defense of Trump and his policies here, but you will find a defense of speech about him.

The First is more philosophical and more dull than you would expect from the title, but less philosophical and less dull (that is, more accessible to the non-academic) than you would expect from the pedigree and profession of the author.  It's interesting, but not earth-shattering.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!