Will Free Speech Prevail?

Meditations on free speech & free thought in Athens, Greece

I’m visiting Athens, Greece to meditate on Western Civilization’s cradle of free speech and thought. Will and Ariel Durant and others scholars have proposed that the ancient Greeks may have been the first people in history who consciously set out to understand reality not as they wanted it to be, but how it really is. As exemplified in the life of Socrates, apprehending reality is mostly a matter of asking questions.

In order to ask questions and to discuss whatever answers are offered, one must have the right to speak freely. Socrates spent most of his life in Athens asking questions. He only got into trouble for it when he was 71 years old. By then, Athens had been badly shaken by its defeat in the Peloponnesian War and its liberal-mindedness had been diminished.

The trial of Socrates is a notable example of how the ruling class may, at any time, turn against free speech and severely punish thinkers who question prevailing orthodoxies.

In 1644, the English poet, John Milton, wrote a defense of free speech in a pamphlet he titled “Areopagitica.” Milton believed that without free speech, understanding and knowledge would be frozen. As he saw it, making errors and correcting them is the process through which one ultimately apprehends the truth.

Milton was partly inspired by the Areopagitikós (Greek: Ἀρεοπαγιτικός)—a speech written by Athenian orator Isocrates in the 4th century BC. Isocrates titled his speech after the Areopagus hill Athens, where the city’s governing council gathered to discuss important court cases. St Paul is said to have given a talk before the Areopagus council in which he defended himself against charges of proselytizing for foreign gods (as was recorded in Acts 17:18–34).

This morning I made a pilgrimage to the Areopagus to meditate on Socrates, St. Paul, Milton, and free speech. I hope the Europeans understand that, without free speech, we will lose not only our general freedom, but also our ability to gain knowledge and pass it on to the next generation. Anyone who wishes to abridge free speech should be regarded as a tyrant.

Standing on the Areopagus with the Athens Acropolis in the background.