Speak Up and Dribble: John Stuart Mill's Freedoms and How they Apply to the Modern Political Athlete (thesis)

Abstract

J. S. Mill's conception of liberty, as proposed in On Liberty, helps us better understand how society can benefit from viewing and embracing athletes as political actors, and how they can serve as examples for the significance of free speech. In this paper I will argue this by first explaining Mill's understanding of freedom of speech and how it is supposed to operate by looking at three aspects of such speech: agonism, publicity, and truth. Then, after explaining why we should be allowing political speech to be a part of our sports world, I will look at the case of Colin Kaepernick and how his political speech of kneeling during the national anthem is beneficial to society. [From Introduction]