First Blog Post: The Enlightenment Legacy

In The Idea of a Free Press, Copeland writes about the legacy of the Enlightenment, a legacy that emphasizes human reason. Enlightenment thinkers, Copeland says, "combined their religious beliefs with a new way of looking at the world." That is, God gave humankind the ability to reason and thus people could understand the world around them, even man himself. As Copeland writes, summarizing Enlightenment thinking, "God could not, would not, reveal, create, or act in any manner contrary to humankind's ability to reason." 

Questions: What do you think of this Enlightenment idea? Did it make sense in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? Does it make sense today? Why or why not? 

Ben Franklin's Ideas about Free Expression

I put this site online in order to stimulate discussion of free expression, the topic of this class. I am interested in having students discuss and debate some of the key ideas and historical principles that have shaped American notions of free speech and free press. 

Here's an example from none other than Benjamin Franklin, who was a colonial printer and publisher. One of his most famous works relating to free expression is "An Apology for Printers." In it, Franklin spells out some of his ideas about the business of printing and how it relates to the larger issue of free expression. 

Here are some highlights from Franklin's essay: 

1. That the Opinions of Men are almost as various as their Faces; an Observation general enough to become a common Proverb, So many Men so many Minds. 

2. That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Mens Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or oppose others. 

4. That it is as unreasonable in any one Man or Set of Men to expect to be pleas'd with every thing that is printed, as to think that nobody ought to be pleas'd but themselves. 

5. Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: Hence they chearfully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute. 

7. It is unreasonable to imagine Printers approve of every thing they print, and to censure them on any particular thing accordingly…. 

8. That if all Printers were determin'd not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed. 

Questions: Is Franklin correct in his defense of printers? Why or why not? What principles of free expression does he express in this apology? Does his defense of printing really apply to the digital age? How? 

These are the kinds of issues and questions I want to see discussed and debated on this blog. If we all pitch it and take these discussions seriously, we may become more and interested in the topic and articulate about free expression and what it means today. 

Stay tuned. 

Using the web to think about free expression

This blog has been created to encourage student engagement and interaction on topics related to the Fall 2008 edition of History and Philosophy of Free Expression, a communication class taught by me, Prof. John Coward.

The idea is simple: I will be posting comments, quotations, and other statements on this site and students will be strongly encouraged (that is, required) to add their own comments and ideas about these posts. If we all work at it, we will create an on-going dialogue of ideas, facts, proposals, criticisms, counter-proposals, and other arguments about the history of free expression and the ideas that link free expression to the democratic experience in the United States.

So watch this space. More ideas coming soon.