free thought
Unshackled mental inquiry
Free thought is the practice of forming opinions independently, based on reason and evidence rather than tradition, authority, or religious doctrine.
The term emerged from Enlightenment debates and remains associated with skepticism toward organized religion: She was raised Catholic but became a freethinker in college.
A freethinker may or may not be an atheist, but rejects accepting beliefs on faith alone.
- open mindAbsence of prejudgment
- skepticismDisposition toward doubt
- secularismSeparation of faith, state
- Age of ReasonEighteenth-century intellectual awakening
- rationalismReason as knowledge source
inquiry · critical thinking · reason · atheism · freedom of conscience · intellectual freedom · marketplace of ideas · liberalism · Voltaire · Thomas Paine · humanism · epistemology · religious tolerance · unorthodox · tolerance · philosophy · emancipation · heresy
- belieffaith, belief, belief systems, creed, dogma
- freedomfreedom of choice, freedom of will, expression, speech, political liberty
- enlightenmentVoltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Kant, Montesquieu
- humanismsecular humanism, Renaissance humanism, classical humanism, humanist values, human dignity
- philosophical conceptsdoubt, nihilism, agnosticism, rationalism, existentialism
- VoltaireVoltaire, Candide, El Dorado, satirical novels, novella
free thoughtdogmatism
Unyielding adherence to doctrine
blind faith · dogma · authoritarianism · orthodoxy · indoctrination
free thoughtfundamentalism
Strict adherence to core tenets
theocracy · piety · religious conformity · faith · devotion
free thoughtfaith
Trust without proof
revelation · tradition · superstition · mysticism · appeals to authority
free, thought, freethinker, freethinking, freethinkers, free-thinking, free-thinker