Dialogic Forms in Freethought Periodicals: Free Discussion and Open Debate

Abstract

Nineteenth-century atheists, agnostics, and secularists were committed to the pursuit of truth via reason and viewed debate to be an ideal form through which to further their cause. As Agnosco, a regular contributor to the Secular Review, wrote in 1890: "He must study both sides of every debateable question. It is only by examining both sides that the truth can be discovered." 1 Freethinkers such as George Jacob Holyoake considered open debate to be at the heart of their movement. His four "rights of Secularism" each address a different facet of intellectual freedom:1. The right to Think for one's self, which most Christians now admit, at least in theory.2. The right to Differ, without which the right to think is nothing worth.3. The right to Assert difference of opinion, without which the right to differ is of no practical use.4. The right to Debate all vital opinion, without which there is no intellectual equality-no defence against the errors of the state or the pulpit. 2 Thus, he asserts, freedom and progress are predicated upon reasoned dissent and being unbound by prevailing opinion. The influence of John Stuart Mill's brand of liberalism, as well as Richard Carlile's libertarian stance, upon freethinkers' commitment to a free platform has been well established. 3 In 1886, a symposium on the "Value of Platform Discussion" in the National Reformer provided the opportunity for W. H. Utley to explain how the right to liberty of thought and discussion, and the creation of platforms where this could be freely expressed, was conceived as a challenge to religious authority: "Free discussion of all lectures is a tradition which has rooted itself into the very core of the Secular movement, and not without Postprint -accepted to appear in Victorian Periodicals Review 55 (Fall/Winter 2022)cause, as all must recognise who have ever sat through a sermon in a church or chapel and felt the almost uncontrollable desire to get up and lay bare its absurdities, and the sense of utter impotence the prohibition causes." 4 This ethos of open debate and honest enquiry permeates freethought periodicals' form and content, promoted as a tactic to overturn religious dogma and what was characterised as the unenlightened faith of believers. Through debates, dialogues, and correspondence, the editors of and contributors to freethought periodicals sustained and grew a radical secular movement that challenged Christian conventions. This article considers how these divisive Victorians used dialogic forms to enact freethinking ideals, but it also identifies ways in which the concept of free debate proved at times to be more of an aspiration than a reality.Freethought is a useful term for understanding the extent of this primarily workingand artisan-class movement, which encompassed multiple forms of irreligion as well as a wider political and social commitment to challenging the status quo. Freethinkers supported a range of activist causes, particularly those that sought to address inequalities such as women's rights, workers' rights, ...