Seana Shiffrin, “Speech Matters: On Lying, Morality, and the Law” (Princeton UP, 2014)
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What is the central thesis of Seana Shiffrin’s *Speech Matters*?
Welcome to the New Books and Philosophy Channel of the New Books Network. My name is Robert Talise. I am professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co host the channel with Carrie Figter. Carrie is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. Today, my guest is Professor Shauna Schiffrin. Her new book is titled Speech Matters on Lying, Morality and the Law. It's just been published by Princeton University Press. Schifrin is Professor of Philosophy and Pete Cameron Professor of Law and Social Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles. That lying is morally prohibited. is generally accepted. But theorists divide over the nature of lying's wrongness. and thus there's disagreement over when the prohibition might be outweighed by competing moral interests.
There's also widespread agreement over the idea that promises made under conditions of coercion or duress lack the moral force to create obligations. Finally, although free speech is widely seen as a primary value and a right There's wide debate over the kind of good that free speech is. Some say the value of free speech lies in the importance of allowing speakers to express themselves. Others contend that its value lies in the effect speech has on audiences. And still others think that the value of free speech consists in its contribution to the collective search for truth. Now, in Speech Matters, Shana Schiffin advances powerful arguments for a novel and systematic view about lying, promises under duress, and free speech.
The result is a fascinating, unified vision of the central role that sincerity and truthfulness play in our individual and collective moral lives. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Shauna Schiffrin.
Hi Bob.
How are you doing today?
I'm terrific, thanks.
Well, thank you for joining us on New Books in Philosophy.
Thank you for having me. It's really nice to have the opportunity.
And thank you, listeners, for joining us for the podcast. Today my guest is Shauna Schiffrin, and we'll be discussing her fabulous new book titled Speech Matters on Lying, Morality and the Law.
How does Shiffrin’s personal and academic background shape the book’s themes?
Now this book is really fascinating and I highly recommend it. I think one of its strengths is the way in which it weaves together deep philosophical analyses of important moral phenomena such as lying, deceiving, free speaking and such, with subtle engagements with the law and with legal scholarship. Moreover, at the heart of the book is a novel, I think important defense of free speech. Um so there's a lot to talk about here and we're gonna try to get to it all. But first um we'll begin where we usually do, that is with the author. Uh Shauna, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Sure. Uh I'm a professor of law and a professor of philosophy at UCLA. I've spent most of my career at U C L A. I started teaching here in nineteen ninety two. I um am a product of the University of California. I was an undergraduate at Berkeley. uh where I majored in philosophy and I uh did my graduate degree at Oxford and my law degree at Harvard. Uh and my research primarily concerns the social conditions of individual autonomy and moral agency. and I explore that theme uh in a number of different venues. I write in moral philosophy and in political philosophy, in legal philosophy and on some doctrinal issues about law. Uh and in law I work mostly in contracts and freedom of speech, but I'm also interested in in torts and intellectual property and areas of family law that bear on
uh the social environment in which individual autonomy can develop and flourish.
Well, excellent. Um Can you tell us a little book a little bit just to start now about um how y you came to write this book? Because I I see just from your description that this book pulls together a lot of those interests.
So the book is partly a work in moral philosophy, partly a work in political philosophy, and partly a work of in law, uh legal both legal doctrine and legal philosophy. Um and it arose out of uh Uh some thinking I was doing in a variety of these different areas, I was struck by the intersection of four themes that I thought were underexplored in both the moral literature and in the legal literature.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central thesis of Seana Shiffrin’s *Speech Matters*?
0:08–2:28
2
How does Shiffrin’s personal and academic background shape the book’s themes?
2:28–6:42
3
Why does Shiffrin link lying, promises under duress, and free speech together?
6:42–15:22
4
How does Shiffrin reinterpret Kant’s famous murderer‑at‑the‑door case?
15:22–25:41
5
When, if ever, do promises made under duress retain moral force?
25:41–34:43
6
What is the ‘thinker‑based’ approach to free speech and how does it differ from speaker‑ or listener‑based theories?
34:43–45:31
7
Can regulations on lying coexist with a strong commitment to free speech?
45:31–54:18
8
What moral arguments does Shiffrin give for limiting police and academic lying?
54:18–1:09:43
Speakers
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