* A defense of intellectual inquiry drew Priestley into the political and ecclesiological debates.
* Priestley attacked Parliament for the levying of taxes on unrepresented colonies.
* Government is the great instrument for progress of the human specie and cannot, therefore, impose conditions that retard or eliminate improvement.
* Government intervention in all but the most obvious cases, is an assault on the lives, liberty, and property of the community.
* Priestley's rational dissent was upheld by two principles: the centrality of Scripture and the sufficiency of human reason. (Truth was the natural object of human reason and the basis of all religious belief.)
* Truth was capable of being discerned only after a freely conducted investigation.
* Human nature is based on the free exercise of reason and supported by the notion of a natural right.
* He was a proponent of universal toleration.
* Priestley denied every individual the right to vote, based on wealth.
* Individuals did not relinquish their natural right for self- defense. (Political society obligation)
*The ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction, being things of a totally different nature, ought, if possible to be wholly disengaged from one another....No nation ever was, or can be truly great, powerful, and happy by pursuing oppressive and persecuting me asures.
Essays on the First Principles, Section 5
Of Religious Liberty, and Toleration in General.
1) Those societies that have enjoyed the most happiness, and the most flourishing state, where the civil magistrates have meddled the least with religion. - Outrages against the peace of society may be restrained by the civil magistrate (murder ). He should not trouble himself about religious opinions.
- Religious opinions and religious actions should be as free as the air we breathe.
- Object of the civil magistrate is the peace and well- being of society.
2) Civil and religious matters in emergency.
- religious quarrels among the members of the state rise very high, that the civil magistrate can have any call or pretense for interfering with religion.
3) Government should have the least pretense in matters that relate to this life and those that relate to the life to come.
- Infinite mischief have arisen from the interference of government in the business of religion.
- What inconvenience worth mentioning has ever arisen from discussing other religions?
4) All the civil societies in this life will be dissolved by death.
- my future life shall have no connection with my privileges or obligations as and Englishman, why should those persons interfere with my conduct?
5) The best interest of man- kind is unbounded liberty, matters of religion.
6) The connection between legislator and religion leads to barbarous nations and imperfect government.
- If all the modes of religion were equally protected by the civil magistrate, they would all vie with one another, which should best deserve that protection.
- any other alliance between church and state is only for worldly- minded men, for their temporal emoluments.
7) Laws might be obeyed very well without any ecclesiastical sanctions.
8) A civil magistrate tending to remedy evil, only inflames it and makes it worse.
- There are more atheists and infidels in Spain and Italy where religion is so well guarded.
9) If religious opinions and principles are in question, evidently subversive to all of religion and all of civil society, they must be evidently false, and easy to refute; so that there can be no danger of spreading.
10) It is for the interest of truth that everything be viewed in fair and open daylight.
11) What one cannot silence by argument should not be suppressed by force.
12) An open enemy is less dangerous than a secret one.
- magistrate may silence voices, but it multiplies whispers.
13) Persecution by Protestants in this age, is repugnant to the great principle of their cause.
Section 10
Of the Progress of Civil Societies to a State of greater Perfection, showing that it is retarded by Encroachments on Civil Religious Liberty.
1)Why should we object to any state gradually reforming itself? (improving)
2)The greatest blessing that can befall a state, which is so rigid and inflexible in its institutions, is to be conquered by a people, who have a better government and have made farther advances in the arts of life.
A) Conquests and revolutions should give mankind those opportunities of reforming their systems of government.
3)The divine being did not make human nature and human government perfect from its beginning (not in our case in England at least)
4)The bulk of mankind is educated in reverence for established modes of thinking and acting.
A) Happily for us, there have always been men of generous and enlarged minds, who have no civil power to contend with and have courage to stem the torrent.
5) For if men of genius know they could not publish the discoveries they made, they could not give free scope to their faculties in making and pursuing those discoveries. It is the thought of publication, and the prospect of fame which is generally the g reat incentive to men of genius to exert their faculties in attempting the untrodden paths of speculation.
6) Every Christian is not at liberty to make use of all arguments, which would supply the best defense of Christianity.
7) The wider we make the common circle of liberty, the more of its friends will it receive, and the stronger will be the common interest.
8) Ministers are much more to be suspected of designs upon the liberties of a people than kings.
Contribution to Free Speech
The separation of church and state was essential for blasphemy. Also, the thought of letting ideas be known was the essential ingredient for truth. This would allow the criticism of church as well as the government without the possible strangulation of p rosecution.
Bibliography
Brown, Ira V. Joseph Priestley. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Joseph Priestley
Political Writings. Cambridge University Press,1992. Huxley, Thomas H. Science and Education. New York D. Appleton and Company, 1898.
Price, Richard. A Free Discussion of the Doctrines of Materialism and Philosophical Necessity. Garland Publishing, Inc. New York and London, 1978.
Squire, J.C. Contemporary American Authors. Henry Holt and Company New York, 1928.
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