Author(s)

Larry Alexander

University of San Diego School of Law, San Diego, USA.

In this (very) short essay, I establish these points: All speech is symbolic; any conduct can be used to communicate a message (i.e., symbolically); government’s purpose in regulating, and not a speaker’s intention to communicate, defines the realm of freedom of expression; and determining the value of speech has a denominator problem.

Speech, Symbolic Speech, Low Value Speech, Governmental Purpose

Alexander, L. (2015) The Misconceived Search for the Meaning of “Speech” in Freedom of Speech. Open Journal of Philosophy, 5, 39-42. doi: 10.4236/ojpp.2015.51005.