Freethinking - by Simon McCarthy-Jones

Book Synopsis

We face radical new threats to our freedom of thought - here's how to retain control

For humanity to survive there must always be people performing the minute-to-minute miracle of thought.

'Excellent and beyond timely.' A. C. Grayling

Scientific advances and new technologies are letting others manipulate our minds more easily than ever before. Now, those tasked with protecting our minds are finally preparing to fight back. As we speak, the United Nations is seeking to pin down a concrete right to free thought and enshrine it in international law alongside life, education and protest.

But what is thought? And what makes it free? And how can it best be protected? Freethinking explores what an effective right to freedom of thought would look like, and asks how we might build a culture of free thought, and whether that's even what we want.

In an uncertain and rapidly evolving world, Freethinking shows that there are solutions to the forces buffeting our minds.

Review Quotes

'Excellent and beyond timely... [McCarthy-Jones] has identified a great challenge for our time - clarifying and asserting this right - and issued a clarion call to meet it.' --A. C. Grayling

'Impressive... wide-ranging... McCarthy-Jones offers a utopian vision of a "deep enlightenment" in which society is restructured, from its streets to its libraries, to improve conditions for free thought.' --Literary Review

About the Author

Simon McCarthy-Jones is an Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology at Trinity College Dublin and the author of Spite. He has written extensively for the popular press, with articles published in the New Statesman, New Scientist, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, Independent and Irish Times.