The Comparison Of Expression Freedom Thought Be Tween John Milton And James Mill

John Milton and James Mill are not only the theory founders of thought of publication freedom, but also contributors to the thought of western liberal system. While modern western and domestic scholars studying the thought of publication freedom, the usually take Milton and John Stuart Mill as the coordinates in the development history of publication freedom thought, but few would mention James Mill. James Mill published " Liberty of The Press" in 1823, which has the same name with the book published in 1644 by John Milton. Both book expressed the thought of publication freedom, but in which their history background, the starting point, the theoretical basis and so are not the same.In the second half of 20 th century, with the development of science and technology and the thriving of modern publishing industry, the thought of express freedom drafted by James Mill had been brought back to the mainstream of western eyesight because many of the topics brought up by modern liberal thinkers have intrinsically logical connection and external links in similarity. These connections and similarities both prompted us to rediscover the value of its ideological and historical role, and impulse us to dig deeper in source of his thought. From the historical background and cultural traditions, ideological basis and reasoning processes, limitations and personal contribution to the history of the perspectives of publication freedom thought, we conducted various research and comparison between the ‘milestone' John Milton and James Mill. This comparison let us recognize the limitations of John Milton's thought of publication freedom result from the times background and personal background, also let us re-examine two theories of western thought and freedom of expression James Mill inherent logic dependencies from philosophy and politics view, so we can draw freely express reference to the present and future of enlightenment thought.