Questions for Analysis and Discussion
of Assignment #2:

John Milton, Areopagitica
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Alexander Meiklejohn, Political Freedom
Martin Redish, "The Value of Free Speech"

 

Query: At the beginning of his polemic, Areopagitica, John Milton addresses the nature of a book and its life force. What is his characterization here? And of what value is this characterization to the overriding purpose of his essay?

 

Query: Subsequently, Milton compares books to good and bad meats. What is the point of this analogy? How does it serve his purposes?

 

Query: Why does Milton argue that the licensing of books would be pointless without the licensing of everything from music and dance to clothing and conversation? If one argued that ideas and actions are separate spheres for regulation, would that be entirely responsive?

 

Query: It should be clear to you by now that John Stuart Mill owed a debt of intellectual gratitude to John Milton in several respects, but perhaps none more than in their “search for truth” and “reinvigoration of truth” rationales. How does Milton in Areopagitica describe the search for and invigoration of truth as one of the strongest justifications for press freedom? How is Milton’s description unique and somewhat different than Mill’s?

 

Query: On Liberty has been praised as a classic statement of the case for the liberties of expression free from all substantial governmental controls. Is this libertarian claim accurate or inaccurate?

 

Query: What problems inhere in Mill's "simple principle" for determining the proper limits of collective authority over the liberty of expression?

 

Query: On Liberty is, of course, dedicated to freedoms of speech in a print-based culture. What challenges do the realities of America's contemporary electronic media culture present to Mill's contentions?

 

Query: In what important respects does Meiklejohn's theory of the freedoms of speech and press differ from Mill's?

 

Query: What, for Meiklejohn, ultimately justifies his distinction between the "freedoms" of the First Amendment and the "liberties" of the Fifth/Fourteenth Amendments?

 

Query: What are the ramifications of Meiklejohn's distinction between First Amendment freedoms of expression and Fifth Amendment liberties in terms of the power of government to regulate various modes of communication -- orality, print, radio, television? What justifies Meiklejohn's opinion that a policy of active governmental regulation of the electronic mass media is authorized by the First Amendment?

 

Query: Although Meiklejohn understands the importance of rational self-determination, does Meiklejohn part company with Redish in terms of the intrinsic nature and value of such self-determination? In other words, does Meiklejohn hold to the same vision of "individual liberty" as Redish?

 

Query: Redish claims at 601 that "political democracy is merely a means to -- or, in another sense, a logical outgrowth of -- the much broader value of individual self-realization. The mistake of [Meiklejohn,] then, is that [he has] confused one means of obtaining the ultimate value with the value itself." Has Redish misunderstood or mischaracterized Meiklejohn?

 

Query: To what extent is Redish's "individual self-realization" theory likely to encompass expressive activities that Meiklejohn's "self-governance" rationale would exclude? In which realms of expressive activities are the disagreements between Redish and Meiklejohn the most starkly apparent?

 

Query: In contrast to Meiklejohn, is it fair to say that Redish's vision of the First Amendment "equates the barest passions with the highest ideals"? That Redish's theory of "individual self-realization" forces the government into a ethical relativism that denies the intrinsic value and superiority of any belief, opinion or action above any other?

 

 

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