FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT
by
Alison Guider
A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of
the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.
Oxford
May 2015
Approved by
_________________________________
Adviser: Professor Jeffrey Watt
_________________________________
Reader: Professor Marc Lerner
_________________________________
Reader: Professor Molly Pasco-Pranger
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©2015
Alison Guider
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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ABSTRACT
ALISON GUIDER: Freedom of Expression and the Enlightenment
(Under the direction of Jeffrey Watt)
This thesis concerns Enlightenment and pre-Enlightenment views of freedom of
expression, including topics such as toleration, freedom of religion, freedom of speech,
and freedom of the press. It then looks at how these views shaped some of the ideas that
emerged from the American and French Revolution. The conclusions drawn here are
drawn from document-based research, both primary and secondary sources. The
Enlightenment, although primarily concentrated in the eighteenth century, actually had
what one might call precursors in the seventeenth century, including John Locke,
Benedict de Spinoza, and Pierre Bayle. These thinkers helped set the stage for
Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu,
and Karl Friedrich Bahrdt. All of these thinkers wrote on freedom of expression, but they
did not always agree on how far this freedom should be extended, which represented a
division between moderate and Radical Enlightenment. Both strains of the
Enlightenment, however, were read by both the American and French Revolutionaries
and shaped the ideas of freedom of expression that came out of these two revolutions,
including protections of free press. Although the Enlightenment does have a bit of a
complicated legacy, modern day protections of freedom of expression would not exist
without it; therefore, an in-depth study of the origins of these protections is worthwhile.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………...…1
CHAPTER I: PRECURSORS TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT…………………………....5
CHAPTER II: ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS……………………………………….24
CHAPTER III: ENLIGHTENMENT INFLUENCE ON THE IDEAS OF EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY REVOLUTIONS……………………………………………………45
EPILOGUE………………………………..………………………………..……………62
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………..66
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