freedom of thought

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, FEELING, AND EXPRESSION



Freedom of Thought



May God us keep
From Single vision and Newton's sleep
- William Blake



"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." - Hypatia of Alexandria



Some Websites dealing with Limitations on Thought



Noam Chomsky has pointed out how basic presuppostions set the bounds of thinkable thought and the bounds of discourse in our society, and has described how these are set and how the media subsequently exert control over the range of ideas in our society.

In General

  • The Bounds of the Expressible (Noam Chomsky)




    Some assorted comments and links addressing limitations on thought in science:



    "It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions." - Thomas Henry Huxley, quoted in Science and Culturexii.



    "Compartmentalization of knowledge, to me, was the very heart of security. My rule was simple and not capable of misinterpretation - each man should know everything he needed to know to do his job and nothing else." - General Leslie Groves, in Now It Can Be Told (New York, Harper & Row, 1962)
    This unfortunate approach has been described as almost the classic recipe for preventing originality.




    "We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about 'unthinkable things', because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless."
    - Senator J. William Fulbright




    ... and Freedom of Expression



    "'The first casualty when war comes is the truth'....the second casualty seems to be free speech." - former Senator Hiram Johnson and columnist Clarence Page

  • Free Speech Online - Blue Ribbon Campaign
  • The American Civil Liberties Union
  • Chicagoland Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights


    "...concentration of media ownership has successfully devalued the right to free speech by severing it from the right to be heard." - attributed to Naomi Klein


    "...free speech is meaningless if the commercial cacophony has risen to the point that no one can hear you." - attributed to Naomi Klein




    This page updated 28 April 2009.
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