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.
