Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media

by Jacob Mchangama

The most prominent—or, to traditionalists, utterly repugnant—work to receive Malesherbes’s stamp of approval was the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert. Their ambition was nothing less than compiling all of the knowledge in the world.55 The main contributors to the Encyclopédie met at Baron d’Holbach’s salon in rue Royale to discuss new texts, philosophy, politics, and the latest news. These “Sheikhs of the rue Royale” included a who’s who of French Enlightenment thinkers like Marmontel, Raynal, Turgot, and Rousseau, as well as visiting foreigners like Cesare Beccaria, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and David Hume. Irreverent conversation abounded at d’Holbach’s salon. Hume, unsettled by their frankness, once told d’Holbach that he had never met an atheist and did not believe they even existed. The baron pointed to the eighteen people present and replied: “Monsieur, count how many of us are here.… It is a good start to be able to show you fifteen straight away. The other three haven’t yet made up their minds.”