Liberty, Enlightenment, and the Polish Brethren

Abstract

The article presents an overview of the history of the idea of dialogics and liberty of expression. This liberty is strictly tied to the problem of liberty of conscience. Since the 17th century, the development of the dialogics traveled from an apocalyptic – and demonising its opponents – discourse as in John Milton’s approach in Areopagitica, through dialogics of cooperation and obligations and laws (in the Polish Brethren, so-called Socinians, especially Jan Crell), through dialogics of deduction (transcendental deduction in Immanuel Kant), to dialogics of induction and creativity (John Stuart Mill).

Keywords

• liberty of conscience
• liberty of expression
• Enlightenment
• history of ideas
• dialogue