Freedom of thought

Freedom of thought is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints.

Overview[edit]

Every person attempts to have a cognitive proficiency by developing knowledge, concepts, theories and assessing them in the given environment. This cognitive proficiency gives a sense of contentment and replaces the feeling of helplessness. Apart from bringing ease to the ego of a person, new knowledge and ideas also bring a hope for the future.^[1]

Freedom of thought is the precursor and progenitor of—and thus is closely linked to—other liberties, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression.^[2] Though freedom of thought is axiomatic for many other freedoms, they are in no way required for it to operate and exist. The conception of a freedom or a right does not guarantee its inclusion, legality, or protection via a philosophical caveat. It is a very important concept in the Western world and nearly all democratic constitutions protect these freedoms.

For instance, the United States Bill of Rights contains the famous guarantee in the First Amendment that laws may not be made that interfere with religion "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo reasoned in Palko v. Connecticut (1937):

Freedom of thought... is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom. With rare aberrations a pervasive recognition of this truth can be traced in our history, political and legal.^[3]

Such ideas are also a vital part of international human rights law. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which is legally binding on member states of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), "freedom of thought" is listed under Article 18:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

The United Nations' Human Rights Committee states that this "distinguishes the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief from the freedom to manifest religion or belief. It does not permit any limitations whatsoever on the freedom of thought and conscience or on the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one's choice. These freedoms are protected unconditionally".^[4] Similarly, Article 19 of the UDHR guarantees that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference".

Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion."^[5]

History of development and suppression[edit]

It is impossible to know with certainty what another person is thinking, making suppression difficult. The concept is developed throughout the Bible, most fully in the writings of Saul of Tarsus (e.g., "For why should my freedom [eleutheria] be judged by another's conscience [suneideseos]?" 1 Corinthians 10:29).^[6]

Although Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates had discussed freedom of thought minimally, the edicts of King Ashoka (3rd century BC) have been called the first decree respecting freedom of conscience.^[7] In European tradition, aside from the decree of religious toleration by Constantine I at Milan in 313, the philosophers Themistius, Michel de Montaigne, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Voltaire, Alexandre Vinet, and John Stuart Mill and the theologians Roger Williams and Samuel Rutherford have been considered major proponents of the idea of freedom of conscience (or "soul liberty" in the words of Williams).^[8]

Queen Elizabeth I revoked a thought censorship law in the late sixteenth century, because, according to Sir Francis Bacon, she did "not [like] to make windows into men's souls and secret thoughts".^[9] During her reign, however, a number of books published by theorist Giordano Bruno spurred controversy, mentioning topics banned by the Catholic Church such as the possibility of an infinite universe. Unwilling to recant these ideas, Bruno was eventually burned as a heretic in Rome by the Italian Inquisition, in turn becoming a martyr for free thought.^[10]

Oliver Cromwell is described by Ignaz von Döllinger as "the first among the mighty men of the world to set up one special religious principle, and to enforce it so far as in him lay: ... The principle of liberty of conscience and the repudiation of religious coercion".^[11]

However, freedom of expression can be limited through censorship, arrests, book burning, or propaganda, and this tends to discourage freedom of thought. Examples of effective campaigns against freedom of expression are the Soviet suppression of genetics research in favor of a theory known as Lysenkoism, the book-burning campaigns of Nazi Germany, the radical anti-intellectualism enforced in Cambodia under Pol Pot and in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, the strict limits on freedom of expression imposed by the Communist governments of the People's Republic of China and Cuba or by dictatorships such as those of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Francisco Franco in Spain.

The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which states that thought can be embedded in language, would support the claim that an effort to limit the use of words of language is actually a form of restricting freedom of thought.^{[citation needed]} This was explored in George Orwell's novel 1984, with the idea of Newspeak, a stripped-down form of the English language alleged to lack the capacity for metaphor and limiting expression of original ideas.

More recently, the development of neuroimaging technologies have raised concerns about entities being able to read and subsequently suppress thought. Although the issue is complicated by the mind-body problem, these concerns form the emerging field of neuroethics and neuroprivacy.

References[edit]

^ Main, T. F. (1967-06-01). "Knowledge, Learning and Freedom from Thought". Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 1 (2): 64–71. doi:10.3109/00048676709159167. ISSN 0004-8674. S2CID 144126437.
^ Swaine, Lucas (2016-11-09). "Freedom of Thought as a Basic Liberty". Political Theory. 46 (3): 405–425. doi:10.1177/0090591716676293. ISSN 0090-5917. S2CID 151827391.
^ Palko v. State of Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (1937).
^ "General Comment No. 22: The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 18) : . 30/07/93. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4, General Comment No. 22. (General Comments)". United Nations Human Rights Website – Treaty Bodies Database. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 1993-07-30. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
^ "The European Convention on Human Rights". Council of Europe.
^ Eugene J. Cooper, "Man's Basic Freedom and Freedom of Conscience in the Bible : Reflections on 1 Corinthians 8–10", Irish Theological Quarterly Dec 1975
^ Luzzatti, Luigi (February 2006). Luigi Luzzatti, "The First Decree on Freedom of Conscience" p. 47 in God in Freedom. Cosimo. ISBN 978-1596054486. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
^ Luzzatti, p. 91.
^ Brimacombe, Peter (2000). All the Queen's Men: The World of Elizabeth I. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 125. ISBN 0312232519.
^ Arturo Labriola, Giordano Bruno: Martyrs of free thought no. 1
^ A.D. Lindsay: The Essentials of Democracy (2 ed.), 1948.

External links[edit]

The Bloody Tenent of Persecution (1867 reprint) (accessed July 10, 2009, on Google Books)
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Academic Freedom
The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics – a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and ethics of freedom of thought
John Bagnell Bury (1861–1927) A History of Freedom of Thought

[1] Main, T. F. (1967-06-01). "Knowledge, Learning and Freedom from Thought". Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 1 (2): 64–71. doi:10.3109/00048676709159167. ISSN 0004-8674. S2CID 144126437.

[2] Swaine, Lucas (2016-11-09). "Freedom of Thought as a Basic Liberty". Political Theory. 46 (3): 405–425. doi:10.1177/0090591716676293. ISSN 0090-5917. S2CID 151827391.

[3] Palko v. State of Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (1937).

[4] "General Comment No. 22: The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 18) : . 30/07/93. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4, General Comment No. 22. (General Comments)". United Nations Human Rights Website – Treaty Bodies Database. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 1993-07-30. Retrieved 2007-10-21.

[5] "The European Convention on Human Rights". Council of Europe.

[6] Eugene J. Cooper, "Man's Basic Freedom and Freedom of Conscience in the Bible : Reflections on 1 Corinthians 8–10", Irish Theological Quarterly Dec 1975

[7] Luzzatti, Luigi (February 2006). Luigi Luzzatti, "The First Decree on Freedom of Conscience" p. 47 in God in Freedom. Cosimo. ISBN 978-1596054486. Retrieved 15 September 2014.

[8] Luzzatti, p. 91.

[9] Brimacombe, Peter (2000). All the Queen's Men: The World of Elizabeth I. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 125. ISBN 0312232519.

[10] Arturo Labriola, Giordano Bruno: Martyrs of free thought no. 1

[11] A.D. Lindsay: The Essentials of Democracy (2 ed.), 1948.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

v t e Censorship
Media regulation	Books books banned Films banned films Internet circumvention Music Postal Press Radio Speech and expression Student media Thought Video games banned video games
Methods	Bleeping Book burning Broadcast delay Censor bars Chilling effect Collateral censorship Concision Conspiracy of silence Content-control software Damnatio memoriae Euphemism Minced oath Expurgation Fogging Gag order Heckling Heckler's veto Internet police Memory hole National intranet Newspaper theft Pixelization Prior restraint Propaganda Purge Revisionism Sanitization Self-censorship Speech code Strategic lawsuit Surveillance computer and network mass Whitewashing Word filtering
Contexts	Criminal Corporate Apple Facebook Google Hate speech Online Ideological LGBT issues Media bias Moralistic fallacy Naturalistic fallacy Politics Propaganda model Religious Suppression of dissent Systemic bias
By country	Censorship Chinese issues overseas Freedom of speech Internet censorship Muhammad controversy

v t e Liberty
Concepts	Cognitive liberty Moral responsibility Personification of Liberty Libertas Negative liberty Positive liberty Rights Self-ownership Social liberty Free will
By type	Academic Civil Economic Intellectual Internet Morphological Political
By right	Assembly Association Asylum Choice Death Education Fair trial Family life Freedom from discrimination Food Gun Health Housing Internet access Information Life Morphological Movement Press Privacy Property Protest Religion Repair Resist Self-defense Sexuality Silence Speech Thought To be forgotten Truth Water and sanitation
See also	Liberty, equality, brotherhood All men are created equal Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness Universal Declaration of Human Rights Anarchism Autonomy Civil libertarianism Drug liberalization Left-libertarianism Libertarianism Right-libertarianism

v t e Western world and culture
Foundations	Cradle of civilization Old World Greco-Roman world Greece Hellenistic Kingdoms Rome Roman Empire Western Eastern Roman legacy Romanization Romano-Germanic culture Christendom
History	European Bronze Age Classical antiquity Late antiquity Middle Ages early high late Renaissance Modern period Early modern period Age of Discovery Reformation Age of Enlightenment Scientific Revolution Age of Revolution Romanticism Abolitionism Emancipation Capitalism Industrial Revolution Great Divergence Modernism World War I Interwar period Universal suffrage World War II Cold War Post–Cold War era Information age War on terror
Culture	Alphabet Greek Latin Cyrillic Architecture Art Periods Calendar Cuisine Diet Classical tradition Studies Clothing History Dance Esotericism Astrology Folklore Immigration Law Languages Eurolinguistics Standard Average European Literature Canon Media Internet Music Chant Classical Folk Mythology Painting (contemporary) Philosophy Science Values Physical culture Sport Religion East–West Schism Western Christianity Decline Secularism
Philosophy	Ancient Greek philosophy Hellenistic philosophy Ancient Roman philosophy Judeo-Christian ethics Christian philosophy Scholasticism Rationalism Empiricism Existentialism Christian existentialism Humanism Christian humanism Secular humanism Liberalism Conservatism Socialism Continental philosophy Analytic philosophy Post-structuralism Tolerance Paradox Relativism Peritrope Atlanticism Sovereigntism Values European
Religion	Abrahamic Judaism Culture Christianity Culture Western/Eastern Catholic Church Latin Church Eastern Orthodoxy Greek Orthodox Church Protestantism Islam Culture Cultural Muslim Bábism Azali Baháʼí Druze Mandaeism Rastafari Samaritanism Paganism Baltic Celtic Finnish Germanic Anglo-Saxon Frankish Gothic Old Norse Hellenistic Roman Slavic Neo Agnosticism Atheism
Law	Natural law Rule of law Equality before the law Constitutionalism Human rights Life Thought Speech Press Religion Property Democracy International law
Contemporary integration	ABCANZ Armies Anglo-Portuguese Alliance ANZUS Arctic Council AUKUS Baltic Assembly Benelux British–Irish Council Bucharest Nine CANZUK Council of Europe Craiova Group EEA EFTA ESA EU EU Customs Union Eurozone EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement Five Eyes G7 Lancaster House Treaties Lublin Triangle NATO Nordic Council OAS OSCE Pacific Islands Forum PROSUL/PROSUR Rio Treaty Schengen Special Relationship Three Seas Initiative USMCA Visegrád Group West Nordic Council Western Bloc Western European and Others Group Westernization

Freedom of thought

Overview[edit]

History of development and suppression[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]