Cornell classics professor Michael Fontaine draws on Socrates and a second-century satirist to examine what it takes to speak freely — and to tolerate speech that challenges those in power — in a new book. In an interview published by Cornell University, Fontaine said the ancient works address questions familiar to modern institutions, including misinformation, dissent and the limits of open discussion.
“How to Speak Freely: An Ancient Guide to Free Speech and Dissent” pairs his translation of Plato's “Apology of Socrates” with Lucian's satirical “The Gods in Council.” It is the 50th volume in the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series, to which Fontaine has contributed six other works.
Two works, two tests of openness
Fontaine said Plato's account of Socrates' defense at his trial was the natural starting point because it is an influential account of a person refusing to stop questioning accepted beliefs despite the cost. Socrates worries not only about the people accusing him in court but also about beliefs jurors had formed from false information years earlier.
The passage, Fontaine said, speaks to the difficulty of correcting misinformation after it has had years to take hold. He said Socrates' larger point is that people are rarely as knowledgeable as they believe, making space for dissent a matter of intellectual humility rather than an endorsement of every dissenting claim.
Lucian's dialogue approaches the question from the other side. In “The Gods in Council,” an institution promises that everyone may speak, then faces a speaker who is offensive and difficult to hear. Fontaine said the satire asks whether leaders will maintain their promise of open discussion when doing so imposes a real cost.
He cautioned that neither ancient author treats dissent as automatically valuable. A speaker may be wrong, foolish or malicious. What matters, in Fontaine's reading, is preserving the possibility that someone can challenge conventional wisdom and prompt reconsideration.
What the texts mean for universities
Fontaine said free speech is not solely a legal right. It also depends on habits and an institutional culture in which people can ask hard questions and leaders are willing to listen. He sees that as particularly important at a university, whose work depends on the possibility that current knowledge is incomplete.
If students and faculty are afraid to ask questions or treat disagreement itself as disloyalty, Fontaine said, institutions lose one means by which knowledge advances. He argued for serious argument and discussion without prescribing the conclusion people must reach.
Fontaine is involved with Cornell's Program on Freedom and Free Societies, which organizes discussions of difficult questions. He said the program's goal is not unanimity but a community in which people can disagree, respond to evidence and continue to work together.
The new interview explores the book's ideas in greater depth than a separately announced Oct. 6 Cornell online discussion featuring Fontaine and university President Michael Kotlikoff. The event is open to the public with advance registration; the book interview does not announce a separate in-person appearance.
Fontaine's other contributions to the ancient-wisdom series include books on jokes, willpower and drinking. His latest work presents the two ancient translations as complementary accounts of both the courage needed to speak candidly and the patience needed to hear uncomfortable views.
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