Wednesday Wisdom

https://youtu.be/DeZqW6eqK2M?si=nGHc7R8Q_w51LkPg

“If you kill a man, you kill a creature; if you kill a book, you kill reason itself.” A quote from radical, anarchist-type of individual? Surprisingly the quote is from a calm, disciplined and religious man and part of his lesser known but seminal paper on free expression.

In the raucous 70’s comedy Animal House, Professor Dave Jennings played by Donald Sutherland dryly explains to his class John Milton’s famous work Paradise Lost. With blank stares and sleeping students, he stops mid-sentence and says “don’t write this down. I find Milton boring, his wife thinks Milton was boring.” Milton wrote a pamphlet Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce advocating for less strict laws after his marriage dissolved, let’s give Havard Lampoon writers some credit for factual clarity.

Milton can be tough to read, its dense and detailed. Paradise Lost assumes you have a working knowledge of the old and new testaments of the Bible, the Greek and Roman mythology along with understanding of Homer and Virgil.

Paradise Lost is John Milton’s most famous work. Written in 1667, it remains one of the most seminal works, often compared to Dante and Homer. As long form poem, it was written in blank verse which means it’s unrhymed iambic pentameter. At its heart, Paradise Lost tells the story of the fall of Satan (a rebel angel cast out of Heaven), the temptation of Adam and Eve and the loss of Eden (Paradise) It’s Milton’s attempt to “justify the ways of God to man”, as he explores themes of free will vs. obedience pride and ambition ,good vs. evil and loss and redemption.

Lesser known, but arguably his most important work, John Milton’s Areopagitica is a landmark defense of free expression. Areopagitica is a prose polemic (a strong verbal attack) written during the English Civil War. It is arguably the most famous defense of freedom of speech and expression in history that argues truth can only be forged through its direct encounter with falsehood in an open marketplace of ideas. Milton wrote it in response to the "Licensing Order of 1643," which required authors to get a government license before publishing their work. Essentially, Milton was fighting against prepublication censorship.

The enlightenment thinkers/philosophers of the late 17th century loved Milton’s use of liberty and reason and his challenge of established institutional power. The Romantic writers of late 18th and early 19th century idolized Milton as a champion of individualism and free expression. They didn't just see him as a poet, they saw him as a champion of the individual mind against the institutions. The Romantics "call to action for individualism" wasn't a new idea, but a revival of Miltonic liberty. Milton defended and promoted republicanism and was a staunch opponent of the English Monarchy supporting the Parliament during the English Civil War. His stance and writing made him a huge influence on such important Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and Voltaire.

Why it matters in 2026?

Milton wrote “A free society depends on letting ideas compete openly, without prior restraint.” He argues truth emerges through open debate censorship weakens society rather than protecting it and individuals must be free to read, think, and judge for themselves. Cambridge educated and fluent in Latin, French, Greek, Spanish and Italian Milton travelled across Europe as a young man to further his curiosities. During his trip to Florence, according to Milton’s diaries he met Galileo who was under house arrest during the Roman Inquisition. Galileo’s crime, supporting the Copernicus model of a heliocentric (sun centered) universe which was heresy at the time. Deeply affected by his encounter, this firsthand encounter of what happens when authority suppresses ideas and how a brilliant scientist could be silenced for his work.

Areopagitica roughly translates as the “Hill of Ares” which is in Athens and is a place where the ancient Athenians held trials and debated laws. It is also called the “Council of the Hill of Ares”. The suffix “ica” means “things pertaining to” or “a discourse about”. Discourse, free expression and liberty from suppression, ancient Greeks knew of its merits and John Milton remined us in the 17th century of that timeless wisdom.

And now you know...

Thanks, Dad, for the gift of curiosity!

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.