Law Commons^™

Three philosophical rationales--search-for-truth, self-governance, and self-fulfillment--have animated discussions of free expression for decades.  Each rationale emerged and attained prominence in American jurisprudence in specific political and cultural circumstances.  Moreover, each rationale shares a foundational commitment to the classical liberal (modernist) self.   But the three traditional rationales are incompatible with our digital age.  In particular, the idea of the classical liberal self enjoying maximum liberty in a private sphere does not fit in the postmodern information society.  The time for a new rationale has arrived.  The same sociocultural conditions that undermine the traditional rationales suggest a self-emergence rationale built on the …