Think Free: A classic defence of freedom of thought

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‘Think Free’ is a classic short defence of freedom of thought. It elegantly outlines the main arguments for why freedom of thought must be prized and protected.
Many attack this freedom in the West today. The entertainment and news media vigorously propagates a certain dominant and homogenous view of the world, and the great majority accept this viewpoint without much thought or criticism. They then shout down those who challenge this viewpoint as phobic and bigoted.
Our society is not encouraged to think freely and openly. We do not usually challenge the mainstream opinion, and we do not seem to want our own opinions challenged.
Untold anti-discrimination laws now expose those who dare speak against the status quo to official complaint, lengthy and expensive legal processes, prosecution, and fines. Lecturers in the humanities departments of our universities do not get far in their academic career unless they toe the line. They are tempted to ridicule students who express a contrary viewpoint, and to bully them into conformity. Western universities now incessantly erode, adversative conjunction in hand, the hallmark freedoms of Western society—freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, and freedom of thought: “Yes freedom of speech is important, but…”
It is time to go back to the arguments that established these freedoms in the first place. ‘La Liberté de Penser’ was written in 1866 by Professor Paul Janet of the Sorbonne. The title may be translated ‘Freedom of Thought,’ or ‘Freedom to Think.’ It first appeared in the political journal Revue des deux Mondes as a kind of extended review and reflection of another work, ‘La Liberté dans l’ordre Intellectual et Moral,’ by the politician and philosopher Emile Beaussire.
Janet wrote into a deeply Catholicised society, socially convulsed by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and mentally convulsed by the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, and the so-called Encyclopaedists. In nineteenth century France, the Roman Catholic demand for unquestioning submission—caricatured as that idea is—was still the main threat to freedom of thought, and Janet writes within that framework. Yet he also recognises the same despotic tendencies among the so-called sceptics and liberal philosophers. The oppression of thought knows no boundaries.
In our day, of course, the secular mainstream is no less insular than the old Catholicism, no less arrogant in its claims to authority, no less dismissive—and even abusive—of contrary points of view, and no less tyrannical in its demand for unquestioning allegiance. Janet writes against blind submission of thought to the majority viewpoint, whatever its source, and his arguments may easily be applied to our own situation.
‘Think Free’ challenges those try to shut down opposing viewpoints, and is tonic for those who are on the receiving end of this.
Don’t be closed-minded, and don’t allow your thinking to be oppressed and enslaved. Keep thinking, and let others think.
This edition includes the original French text of Janet's work.