{{distinguish|Freethought|Cognitive liberty|Freedom of speech}} {{Short description|Freedom to hold a thought}} {{essay-like|date=July 2018}} [[File:Freedom of Thought Ben Franklin.jpg|thumb|200px|"Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom & no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech", Benjamin Franklin, 1722]]
'''Freedom of thought''' is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints.
== Overview == <!-- Note: perhaps something could be mentioned here about the Four Freedoms proposed by Franklin Roosevelt, which also includes freedom from fear and freedom from want -->
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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Main|first=T. F.|date=1967-06-01|title=Knowledge, Learning and Freedom from Thought|url=https://doi.org/10.3109/00048676709159167|journal=Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry|language=en|volume=1|issue=2|pages=64–71|doi=10.3109/00048676709159167|s2cid=144126437|issn=0004-8674|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Swaine|first=Lucas|date=2016-11-09|title=Freedom of Thought as a Basic Liberty|journal=Political Theory|language=en-US|volume=46|issue=3|pages=405–425|doi=10.1177/0090591716676293|s2cid=151827391|issn=0090-5917}}</ref> 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):
{{quote|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.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Palko v. State of Connecticut |vol=302 |reporter=U.S. |opinion=319 |pinpoint= |court= |year=1937 |url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=302&invol=319 }}</ref>}}
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:
{{quote|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".<ref>{{cite web |title=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) |work=United Nations Human Rights Website – Treaty Bodies Database |publisher=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights |date=1993-07-30 |url=http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/9a30112c27d1167cc12563ed004d8f15?Opendocument |access-date=2007-10-21 }}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite web | title=The European Convention on Human Rights | publisher=Council of Europe|url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-convention/conscience}}</ref>
==History of development and suppression== 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).<ref>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</ref>
[[File:GiordanoBrunoCampodeiFiori cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Bronze statue of Giordano Bruno in Rome]] 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a6cL9Jng5okC&q=%22freedom+of+conscience%22+ashoka&pg=PR7|title=Luigi Luzzatti, "The First Decree on Freedom of Conscience" p. 47 in ''God in Freedom''|access-date=15 September 2014|isbn=978-1596054486|last1=Luzzatti|first1=Luigi|date=February 2006|publisher=Cosimo }}</ref> 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).<ref>Luzzatti, p. 91.</ref>
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".<ref>{{cite book |last=Brimacombe |first=Peter |title=All the Queen's Men: The World of Elizabeth I |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2000 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/allqueensmenworl0000brim/page/125 125] |isbn=0312232519 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/allqueensmenworl0000brim/page/125 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{citation |title=Giordano Bruno: Martyrs of free thought no. 1|author=Arturo Labriola}}</ref>
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".<ref>A.D. Lindsay: ''The Essentials of Democracy'' (2 ed.), 1948.</ref>
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 Capitalist 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|date=June 2010}} 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, neuroimaging technology has raised concerns about entities possibly reading and subsequently suppressing thought. These concerns form the emerging fields of neuroethics and neuroprivacy.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}
Humanists International publishes the annual Freedom of Thought Report, which compiles country-by-country material on the treatment of non-religious people and related freedoms of expression and belief.<ref>{{cite web |title=Country Index |website=Freedom of Thought Report |publisher=Humanists International |url=https://fot.humanists.international/countries/ |access-date=29 December 2025}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Philosophy}} {{div col|colwidth=22em}} * Attention theft * Cognitive liberty * Doublethink * Freedom of conscience * Freethought * Four Freedoms, Franklin Roosevelt's speech * Free speech zone * Free will * Intellectual freedom * Mind control * Prisoner of conscience * Public opinion * Thoughtcrime
{{div col end}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * D.V. Coornhert, ''Synod on the Freedom of Conscience: A Thorough Examination during the Gathering Held in the Year 1582 in the City of Freetown'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jh7S9kTlq0AC&q=%22synod+on+the+freedom+of+conscience%22 English translation] * Richard Joseph Cooke, ''Freedom of thought in religious teaching'' (1913) * Lucas Swaine, "Freedom of Thought as a Basic Liberty," ''Political Theory'', 46:3 (2018): 405–425. {{doi|10.1177/0090591716676293}} * 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 * George Botterill and Peter Carruthers, 'The Philosophy of Psychology', Cambridge University Press (1999), p. 3 * The Hon. Sir John Laws, 'The Limitations of Human Rights', [1998] P. L. Summer, Sweet & Maxwell and Contributors, p. 260 * {{cite encyclopedia | author =Voltaire | author-link =Voltaire | encyclopedia =Dictionnaire philosophique | title =Liberté de penser | language =fr | year =1954 | series =Classiques Garnier | publisher =Éditions Garnier | location =Paris | pages =277–81 }} * Roger Williams, ''The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience'' (1644; [https://books.google.com/books?id=IL8MAAAAIAAJ 1867 reprint]) * Samuel Rutherford, ''Lex, Rex'' ([http://www.portagepub.com/products/caa/sr-lexrex17.html 1644])
==External links== {{commons category|Freedom of thought}} * [https://books.google.com/books?id=IL8MAAAAIAAJ ''The Bloody Tenent of Persecution'' (1867 reprint)] (accessed July 10, 2009, on Google Books) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060721204415/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-02 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'': Academic Freedom] * [http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/ 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
{{Censorship}} {{Liberty}} {{Human rights}} {{Western culture}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Fundamental rights Category:Human rights Category:Human rights by issue Category:Political terminology Category:Philosophy of law Category:Thought Category:Censorship Category:Political philosophy