What one ought to mean by “speech,” in the context of discussions of free speech, is whatever it is that a correct justification of the right to free speech justifies one in protecting. What one ought to mean, it may be argued, includes illocution, in the sense of J.L. Austin. Some feminist writers, accepting that free speech includes free illocution, have been led to take the notion of silencing seriously in discussions of free speech.

To draw attention to our ethical language can at least hold out the prospect of our coming to think about it, and about the ethical life expressed in it, as social practices that can change. Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (Collins, London, 1985) p.131.

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This chapter introduces a disjunctivist conception of acting for reasons by showing that an account of acting for reasons should give a place to knowledge. This disjunctive conception is claimed to have a role analogous to that of the disjunctive conception that John McDowell recommends in thinking about perception; and it is shown that the two conceptions have work to do in combination when they are treated as counterparts. It is also claimed that the disjunctive conception of acting for reasons safeguards the connection between what moves us to act (sometimes called ‘motivating reasons’) and what favours our acting (sometimes called ‘normative reasons’).

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