In 1644, on November 23, in the midst of England’s Civil War, John Milton published a pamphlet entitled “Areopagitica”. It is a defense of freedom of speech, and an eloquent argument for the fundamental role of civil discourse and rational analysis in classical education.
The title is a reference to the Areopagus Hill, where Athens held its tribunals by the fourth century BC, and to a speech written (but not orally delivered) by the rhetorician and teacher Isocrates. It is also said to be the location where St. Paul preached to the citizens of Athens about their “unknown God”.
Milton’s pamphlet argued against the 1643 Ordinance for the Regulation of Printing, which required authors to have a license before their works could be published, effectively formalizing censorship of anyone the government did not want publishing criticism of its policies.
Milton actually supported the Calvinist Parliament that had ousted Charles I, but he defended his opposition to the Ordinance as an act of civil liberty as well as the responsibility of a loyal citizen offering constructive criticism. Consistent with his own classical education, he believed that a work should be “examined, refuted, and condemned” rather than simply censored. He argued that in order to be a learned adult, as were Moses, David, and St. Paul, one needed to read books of every kind, even heretical books, in order to learn how to identify what is true from that which is not true. As God has endowed everyone with reason and free will, the examination and adoption or rejection of ideas is each person’s own responsibility. It cannot be legislated or performed by another, who may make mistakes or misuse a position of power to silence those who are, in fact, working out God’s purposes through their ideas and opinions.
Milton also required accountability for his writers, agreeing that publications should identify the publisher and author. Works that promoted libel, blasphemy, and open superstition could be identified and legitimately suppressed.
Still today, determining what is actually libelous or deliberately false is a tricky proposition. As Plato demonstrates in the dialogue Gorgias, the job of a rhetorician like Isocrates was to present a particular argument in the best way, regardless of its actual truth. Discerning the truth of the argument is the responsibility of the listener or reader. It requires the training, experience, and moral examination that a classical Christian education is designed to provide.