지식과 권력의 규범적 관계 모색: 밀턴의 도덕적 지식과 이성적 정체(政體)

Abstract

This essay discusses the problem of the relationship between power and knowledge, considering Milton's idea that true knowledge can provide the conditions for a thorough reform of society. In his political tracts, Milton expresses the idea that a new formation of political information and knowledge is required to limit the manipulative power of the politicians or partisan writers over susceptible people. According to Milton, the means of solving the problem of social control which stands in the way of a general reformation is to ensure the better circulation of knowledge and proper ethics. The process of King Charles I's condemnation and the event of his execution in 1649 raised some controversies about whether his trial was justified and the meanings that it had politically. Many pamphlets condemning the King or Parliament were published that voiced different views and explanations of the event. Royalists claimed that the execution was not carried out according to the proper procedures of the law. This view was opposed by Milton who argued in his political tracts that the King was a tyrant rather than a just ruler who abused his power and broke his contract with the people. Therefore, his execution was fully justified. Milton's concerns were not limited to the exploration of the King's wrong-doing nor the attacks of those who disagreed with him. He was also concerned with the problem of rhetoric which was shrewdly employed by the Royalist apologists to deceive the opponents. In Eikonoklastes, he aims to expose the crimes of King's regime. By showing how much of King's rule was dependent upon ill-conceived political machinations rather than a proper governmental policy, he attempts to demystify the King's image and to counter the false forms of knowledge created by Royalist propaganda. According to his argument, the King was not a locus of political authority rooted in intellectual leadership supported by true knowledge but a key figure in political imposture armed with the vanity of mere words. Although the King was far from being the earthly manifestation of the godly rule which Milton expected at the time, the people, nevertheless, tended to approve his tyrannical rule and engage in his idolatry. In this context, Milton's self-appointed task was to ensure that the people would be equipped with the ability to choose the interpretation which would best reveal the true nature of the King's words and deeds so that they could become no longer his dupes but his judges. As Milton continually stresses, the power of the state remains the province of the people rather than being inherent in authority. Therefore, as he suggests in Eikonoklastes, there is a need for active readership on the part of the English people in responding to Charles's regime and his carefully-crafted image. As Milton emphasizes in his political tracts of late 1640s and 1650s, it is very important for the readers to see a political situation correctly. One model he suggests is to break the "double sense deluding." It is a model of reading based on reason and judgement that can produce the moral knowledge necessary for the construction of an ideal polity rather than on the external authority of an institution. Warning about the moral and epistemological failure of the King's regime, Milton claims that an ideal new polity should base itself in the search for moral knowledge. The moral knowledge can be epitomized as following: "Truth is but Justice in our knowledge, and justice is but Truth in our practice." This knowledge, if understood properly, can provide the means to tackle some of the political problems of seventeenth-century England and lead to the creation of an ideal polity.