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Freedom of thought (also called the freedom of conscience or ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints.

It is different from and not to be confused with the concept of freedom of expression.

Overview

'Freedom of thought' is the derivative of and thus is closely linked to other liberties: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression. It is a very important concept in the western world but nearly all democratic constitutions protect these freedoms. For instance, the U.S. 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". A US Supreme Court Justice (Benjamin Cardozo) reasoned in Palko v. Connecticut (1937) that:

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.¹

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, 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 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."² 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..."

Suppression

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The obvious impediment to censoring thought is that it is impossible to know with certainty what another person is thinking, and harder to regulate it. Many famous historical works recognize this. The Bible summarizes in Ecclesiastes 8:8: "There is no man that has power over the spirit, to retain it; neither has he power in the day of death." A similar sentiment is expressed in the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament, where he likens those who attempt to control the emotions of their neighbours to "the children in the marketplace" who try to produce dancing with a happy song and mourning with a dirge, and then express frustration at their futility in trying to do so (Matthew 11:16). 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".³

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 the strict limits on freedom of expression imposed by the Communist governments of the Peoples Republic of China and Cuba.

Freedom of expression can also be stifled without institutional interference when majority views become so widely accepted that the entire culture represses dissenting views. For this reason, some condemn political correctness as a form of limiting freedom of thought. Although political correctness aims to give minority views equal representation, the majority view itself can be politically correct; for example, college student Max Karson was arrested following the Virginia Tech shootings for politically incorrect comments that authorities saw as "sympathetic to the killer." Karson's arrest raised important questions regarding freedom of thought and whether or not it applies in times of tragedy.

The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which states that thought is inherently 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 lacking the capacity for metaphor and limiting expression of original ideas.

Internet censorship

Some countries, like Iran,⁴ Saudi Arabia, Egypt⁵, China, and others⁶ attempt to control and censor information on the World Wide Web. In October 2006, Iranian mullahs ordered internet service providers to reduce connection speeds for home and cafe computers.⁷

Drug prohibition

Patterns of brain activity can be altered by taking psychoactive drugs – ranging from caffeine to fluoxetine (Prozac) to LSD. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines a psychoactive substance as "any substance that people take to change either the way they feel, think, or behave."⁸

Religious groups and shamans have also traditionally used specific plants to alter thought, aiding members in worship or helping to put them in touch with God. The Rastafari movement encourages cannabis use, Islamic Sufi mystics use hashish to be present with the Godhead, indigenous Amazonian people use ayahuasca tea ritualistically to connect with the spirit(s) of the jungle, Native American use peyote, and chewing khat (heralded as a "pipeline to Allah") is popular among many Muslims in Eastern Africa. Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley and Terence McKenna have argued that certain psychoactive drugs, especially entheogens, may be used to favorably alter the way we think.

Some non-governmental organizations, such as the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, argue that placing limits on the use of certain drugs is akin to placing a limit on thought itself – thus violating the right to cognitive liberty.⁹

Constitutional rights-based arguments against blanket drug prohibition have featured in US legal history since the 1960s. In February 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right to religious drug use, ruling for União do Vegetal in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal. This case now features in arguments for and against drug prohibition.

See also

	Human rights portal
	Philosophy portal

• Free will
• Freethought
• Hate crime
• Public opinion
• Intellectual freedom
• Neuroethics
• Prisoner of conscience
• Thoughtcrime
• State of World Liberty Index
• Censorship in Iran
• Censorship in Saudi Arabia
• Internet censorship in the United Kingdom
• Golden Shield Project (internet censorship in China)

References and notes

Further reading

1. George Botterill and Peter Carruthers, ‘The Philosophy of Psychology’, Cambridge University Press (1999), p3
2. The Hon. Sir John Laws, ‘The Limitations of Human Rights’, [1998] P.L. Summer, Sweet & Maxwell and Contributors, p260

External links

• Freedom of Thought - Iranian Underground Art Movement
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Academic Freedom
• The Beckley Foundation - a charitable trust that promotes the investigation of consciousness
• www.medienhilfe.org Internationale Medienhilfe (IMH) - International organization for press freedom
• The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics - a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and ethics of freedom of thought
• Information about Casey Hardison - the first individual in the UK to use an elaborate freedom of thought argument to challenge drug prohibition in court
• John Bagnell Bury (1861-1927) A History of Freedom of Thought - E-book online (Copyright expired)