Like, can you just say more about that?

Well, so the original value is, of course, in the autonomy of the individual and the liberal society.

That's why the First Amendment gets written the way it does.

And there are older precedents for that in United Kingdom law and such.

But, you know, I think particularly in the 19th century, free speech is not really legally protected much in the United States.

It actually, the first cases in which the courts will prevent a government from passing a law that restricts free speech, in other words, the First Amendment cases where the private party wins, don't happen until the 1920s in this country.

So it's very, very new.

you know,

Um, what does the Forum do and, um, you know, w- how is it that institutions like that can actually animate free inquiry and free expression on university campuses, uh, uh, uh, in other, uh, places as well?

Yeah, I think we're seeing a lot of initiatives around the country so it's very exciting and they're very different, uh, things going on in different campuses, which is of course appropriate.

Um, we are fortunate at the University of Chicago to be at the place which has stood for academic freedom for its entire existence.

So, you know, unlike, say, Harvard, we were founded in the progressive era of the late 19th century and so there was a lot of st- uh, commitment really to democracy, to science, to free expression, to academic freedom.

And, um, th- what...

So part of what we do then is to orient people who come to the university and that would be everyone: students, faculty, even staff ideally I'd hope to have everyone learn about the tradition and the way that this university has approached those issues.

Now, you don't have to agree with it.

Now, I assume that you think that in those cases, uh, that speech shouldn't be constrained, but, but, but how should we think about that? I mean, when we say the purpose of these norms within the university is free inquiry, how do we make sure that we don't, uh, let that become a kind of argument to actually then subspress- suppress any speech that's not directly within the core field of academic expertise of a faculty member, um, uh, i- in ways that I think would actually, um, deepen the kind of taboos you often have on campus?