Concept

Freedom of thought

Overview

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

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

1. My purpose in this address is to emphasize the new dangers and to consider how they can be met. Let us begin by trying to be clear as to what we mean by “free thought.” This expression has two senses. In its narrower sense it means thought which does not accept the dogmas of traditional religion.

   Bertrand Russell, Free Thought and Official Propaganda

   States what Freedom of thought is; the author is tied to Freedom of thought in the knowledge graph.

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2. Thus a brownish-grey would probably be the primitive colour of man—something of the ape and the bear, as is only proper. INDEPENDENCE.—Independence (which in its weakest form is called “freedom of thought”) is the type of resignation which the tyrannical man ends by accepting—he who for a long time had been looking for something to govern, but without finding anything except himself. THE TWO COURSES.—When we…

   Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Dawn of Day

   States what Freedom of thought is; names Freedom of thought.

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3. The success in fighting which is achieved by suppressing freedom of thought is brief and very worthless. In the long run mental vigor is as essential to success as it is to a good life. The conception of education as a form of drill, a means of producing unanimity through slavishness, is very common, and is defended chiefly on the ground that it leads to victory.

   Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight

   States what Freedom of thought is; the author is tied to Freedom of thought in the knowledge graph.

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Philosophers who discussed Freedom of thought

• Baruch Spinoza
• Bertrand Russell
• Islam
• Denis Diderot
• Allan Bloom

Related ideas

• Francis Bacon
• George Orwell
• Ashoka
• Giordano Bruno
• John Stuart Mill
• John Locke
• Censorship
• Language
• Anti-intellectualism
• Humanists International
• Nazi Germany
• Oliver Cromwell
• Plato
• Propaganda
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Rome
• Socrates
• Linguistic relativity
• Adolf Hitler
• First Amendment to the United States Constitution
• United Nations
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Voltaire
• Baruch Spinoza

Place in the tradition

Part of Atheism.

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