1748: Montesquieu and Spirit of the Law
J.-A. Dassier, Portrait of Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (Public Domain) Montesquieu’s De L’Esprit de Lois or Spirit of the Law from 1748 contains an argument for free speech and a…
Category: Timeline Stories
All timeline stories.
1742: David Hume’s ‘Essays Moral, Political and Literary’
Portrait by Allan Ramsay, c. 1754 (Public Domain) Hume’s Essays Moral, Political and Literary from 1742 contain a philosophical argument for freedom of the press: “But I would…
c. 480 – c. 406 BCE: Euripides and Parrhesia
Parrhesia or ‘uninhibited speech’ is another ancient Greek concept of free speech which means to speak freely, boldly or frankly. The term is first used by the playwright Euripides who…
1644: John Milton’s Areopagitica
John Milton publishes Areopagitica, his famous argument for free speech, in 1644. According to Milton, the only way to reach the truth is by letting conflicting ideas meet. The…
1662: The Licensing of the Press Act
Satire from ‘Grub Street Journal’, London, 1732 The English Parliament issues “the Licensing of the Press Act” in 1662, two years after the restoration of Charles II. It bans…
1643: Licensing Order
The British parliament establishes pre-publication censorship in 1643, when it issues the Licensing Order. The Licensing Order moves Milton to write his famous argument for free speech, the Areopagitica. It…
1695: Locke and the end of the Licensing Act
The Licensing Act expires in 1695. No longer does it enforce pre-publication censorship and ban ‘heretical, seditious, schismatical, or offensive books’. John Locke plays a critical role lobbying against the…
1582: Dirck Coornhert’s Synod on Freedom of Conscience
Portrait by Cornelis van Haarlem, 1686-88 (Public Domain) Dirck Coornhert’s Synod on Freedom of Conscience from 1582 is a fictional discussion of free speech and freedom of conscious. The…
1579: Birth of the Dutch Republic
The Union of Utrecht in 1579. Illustration by J.H. Eichman & H. Altmann, 1856 The Dutch Republic is born in 1579, when the northern states of the Low Countries…
1670: Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus
Baruch Spinoza c. 1665 (Public Domain) In 1670, the philosopher Baruch Spinoza publishes his controversial Tractatus theologico-politicus anonymously. The book argues for libertas philosophandi – the “freedom to philosophize” –…