Bentham, Kant, and the Right to Communicate

In: Critical review: an interdisciplinary journal of politics and society, Band 15, Heft 3-4, S. 285-305

Abstract

Bentham favored a free press as an instrument of public control of the state, in the interest of general happiness. Kant favored free public discussion as an instrument for the development & expression of autonomous rationality. But a free press embodied in the property rights of the owners of the press may well fail to achieve either Benthamite or Kantian goals. Such goals lead to a personal right to communicate rather than to a corporate right to press freedom. 40 References. Adapted from the source document.