John Milton

I. Milton, most famous for his poetic writings, also became one of the most the influential political writers in seventeenth century England.

A. Areopatigica, his major work on free speech, was published 5 years prior to Charles I execution.

B. In 1649, Charles I was executed and Milton published The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.

C. After Charlesı demise, Milton became the chief protagonist for the Commonwealth (Dzelzainis ix).

D. Salvadori described Milton as a towering intellectual, [with] a deeply religious Puritan leaning to Independence, a political militant... deeply involved with the events of his times (25).

E. Miltonıs educational background also influenced his political thought.

1. Humanistic values undergird all this works (Dzelzainis x).

2. He was a student of the classics evidenced throughout his writings (Altschull 38).

3. He believed ³man was inherently good (Altschull 38).

II. Areopatigica defended the freedom to print without prior licensing.

A. Areopatigica is a response to a law that required all published materials to be licensed prior to printing.

B. It argues for the right of the people to publish without prior restraint, but it should not be confused that Milton was arguing for the full availability of all published or publishable matter (Shawcross 9).

C. Milton's major argument in Areopatigica is known as the self-righting principle.

1. Civil liberty is attained through the open discussion of ideas and grievances.

2. Milton believed that as Truth and falsehood were debated, Truth would always triumph over falsehood. D. Without freedom of the press, religious and civil knowledge will not increase.

E. When society has a desire for knowledge, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making (338).

F. He disagrees with Plato on the issue of censorship. He did not believe that licensing would mend our condition (283).

G. For Milton liberty is a means to the end of truth (Altschull 41).

H. Milton closes by emphasizing that the liberty of conscience should be valued above all other freedoms. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties (349).

I. The practice of licensing publications was not abolished until Englandıs Glorious Revolution half a century later (Knowlten and Parsons 12).

III. Miltonıs contribution to free speech theory hinges on the belief that information and ideas need to be freely exchanged in order for man to gain knowledge and understanding and to discover truth. For Milton the liberty of conscience was the fundame ntal freedom, necessary for all other freedoms to exist. Through the free exchange of ideas, he believed wise men would discover truth.

IV. Bibliography

Altschull, J. Herbert. From Milton to McLuhan: The Ideas Behind American Journalism. New York: Longman, 1990.

Knowlton, Steven R. and Patrick R. Parsons. The Journalists Moral Compass: Basic Principles. West Port, CT: Praeger, 1995.

Milton, John. Areopatigica. Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton 1780. Francis Blackburne. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1974.

Milton, John. John Milton: Political Writings. Ed. Martin Dzelzainis. Trans. Claire Gruzelier. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Salvadori, Massimo. European Liberalism. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1972.

Shawcross, John T. The Life of Milton. The Cambridge Companion