Think for Yourself
Freethought from the Greeks to today
How important is it to think for yourself?
Socrates was executed in 399 BC because he questioned Athenian views about the gods and morality. The history of daring to criticise mainstream opinion, especially in matters of religion, is a defining feature of the intellectual development of the West. Through historical and contemporary examples including Socrates, Shelley, Charles Bradlaugh and Salman Rushdie, Emma Park will consider the importance of thinking for yourself, of learned uncertainty and liberating doubt, to the flourishing of the individual and wider society – and the place of the Freethinker in all this.
Emma Park is the editor of The Freethinker, the online magazine of freethought, open enquiry and irreverence. Founded in 1881, it has a long history of challenging religious privilege. Emma became editor in 2022 and has relaunched the magazine as “culturally liberal, politically unaligned, and sceptical of all forms of ideological tyranny".
