The Argument for the Blasphemous and Unseemly

Isaac Moorhouse explores the question "Why Are So Many Protestants Capitalists But Not Libertarians?"

"The famous poet, theologian, and political protester John Milton advanced this argument boldly and eloquently in defense of free-speech against censorship. (I review his arguments and their relevance to the modern world in a short paper here). His Areopagitica, a brilliant tract against England’s laws of Imprimatur, makes the case that the greatest harm done by prohibiting blasphemous and unseemly publications is not harm done to the authors or even readers, but to those who would be deprived of the choice not to read it, and thereby would lose the ability to make a truly moral choice.

Milton felt that speech must be free if men are to ever be moral beings. Sheltering a person from any possibility of acting wrongly does not make a person of character. Additionally, Milton argued that weakness and fear are what motivate the desire to prohibit “false” writings. Can’t truth stand on her own? Can’t those who seek her find her and avoid falsehood?"

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