School
Freethought
Overview
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is a social movement espousing unorthodox attitudes and beliefs, formed independently from authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma.
The cognitive application of free thought is known as freethinking, and adherents of freethought are known as freethinkers, which the Collins English Dictionary defines as someone "mentally free from the conventional bonds of tradition or dogma, and thinks independently." In some contemporary thought in particular, free thought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional social or religious belief systems. Freethinkers hold that knowledge should be grounded in facts, scientific inquiry, and logic. The skeptical application of science implies freedom from the intellectually limiting effects of confirmation bias, cognitive bias, conventional wisdom, popular culture, prejudice, or sectarianism.
The term first came into use in the 17th century in order to refer to people who inquired into the basis of traditional beliefs which were often accepted unquestioningly. Today, freethinking is most closely linked with agnosticism, deism, secularism, humanism, anti-clericalism, and religious critique.
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.
The actual exercise of that power, by directing any particular action, or its forbearance, is that which we call VOLITION or WILLING. The forbearance of that action, consequent to such order or command of the mind, is called VOLUNTARY. And whatsoever action is performed without such a thought of the mind, is called INVOLUNTARY. The power of perception is that which we call the UNDERSTANDING. Perception, which we…
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1
States what Freethought is; the author is tied to Freethought in the knowledge graph.
In this sense a man is a “free thinker” if he is not a Christian or a Mussulman or a Buddhist or a Shintoist or a member of any of the other bodies of men who accept some inherited orthodoxy. In Christian countries a man is called a “free thinker” if he does not decidedly believe in God, though this would not suffice to make a man a “free thinker” in a Buddhist country. I do not wish to minimize the importance of…
Bertrand Russell, Free Thought and Official Propaganda
States what Freethought is; the author is tied to Freethought in the knowledge graph.
Another very important doctrine held by most, though not all, of the school we are examining is the doctrine that all reality is what is called "mental" or "spiritual," or that, at any rate, all reality is dependent for its existence upon what is mental. This view is often particularised into the form which states that the relation of knower and known is fundamental, and that nothing can exist unless it either knows…
Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
States what Freethought is; the author is tied to Freethought in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Freethought
- Giordano Bruno
- Ludwig Büchner
- Anthony Collins (philosopher)
- Pierre Gassendi
- John Anderson (philosopher)
- John Toland
- Thomas Paine
- Brand Blanshard
- Abu Bakr al-Razi
- Emma Goldman
- The Age of Reason
- God Is Not Great
- Richard Carrier
- Al-Ma'arri
- Émile Littré
Related ideas
- Progressive education
- Encyclopédie
- French language
- Cognition
- Turkey
- Freemasonry
- Giordano Bruno
- Ludwig Büchner
- Isaac Newton
- Iran
- Ireland
- Individualism
- Atheism
- Germans
- Joseph Stalin
- John Locke
- Separation of church and state
- Authority
- London
- Music
- Anthony Collins (philosopher)
- Geometry
- Gargantua and Pantagruel
- Messiah
Place in the tradition
Part of Atheism.