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“如果没有思想自由，就没有所谓的智慧，也没有所谓的公共图书馆。”
—— 本杰明·富兰克林，1722 年。

思想自由（英語：Freedom of thought）又称觀念自由，是个人持有或主张独立于他人之事实、观点或思想的自由权，例如不同于家长，宗教组织，与执政党的思想。思想自由是人权的基本组成部分。需要注意的是，思想自由与言论自由不同，不应混淆。

总论

思想自由是其他的自由的先决条件，并与它们密切相关，这包括了信仰自由和言论自由。尽管Template:HowtoTranslate例如，美国权利法案的宪法第一修正案中，作出了著名的明确保障，规定法律不得干涉宗教，“或阻碍宗教的自由实践”。美国最高法院大法官Benjamin Cardozo在Palko v. Connecticut一案（1937）中论述道：

思想自由……是其他任何形式自由的基石，是不可或缺的条件。对这一真理的普遍认识，可以追溯到我们的历史、政治和法律中，除了极少数时遭到过的扭曲之外。

思想自由也是国际人权法中的重要部分。例如，在《公民及政治权利国际公约》的法律基础《世界人权宣言》中，将思想自由名列第十八条：

人人有思想、良心和宗教自由的权利；此项权利包括改变他的宗教或信仰的自由，以及单独或集体、公开或秘密地以教义、实践、礼拜和戒律表示他的宗教或信仰的自由。

联合国人权委员会认为， "distinguishes the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief from the freedom to manifest religion or belief. It does not permit any limitations whatsoever on the freedom of thought and conscience or on the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one's choice. 这些自由是无条件受保护的。". 世界人权宣言的第十九条也有类似的规定，”人人有权享有主张和发表意见的自由；此项权利包括持有主张而不受干涉的自由，和通过任何媒介和不论国界寻求、接受和传递消息和思想的自由。”

History of development and suppression

因为明确知道他人心中在想什么是不可能的，因此对思想自由的压制是很困难的。思想自由的概念可以追溯到《圣经》，特别是圣保罗的写作中（如《哥林多前书》10:29：“我这自由，为什么要被别人的良心论断呢？ ”）。

Bronze statue of Giordano Bruno, Campo de' Fiori, Rome

尽管希腊哲学家柏拉图和苏格拉底在有限程度上讨论了思想自由，the edicts of King Ashoka (3rd century BC) have been called the first decree respecting Freedom of Conscience. In European tradition, aside from the decree of religious toleration by Constantine I at Milan in 313, the philosophers Themistius, Michel de Montaigne, Baruch Spinoza, Locke, Voltaire, Alexandre Vinet, and John Stuart Mill have been considered major proponents of the idea of Freedom of Conscience.

Queen Elizabeth I revoked a thought censorship law in the late sixteenth century, because, according to Sir Francis Bacon, she did "not [like] to make windows into men's souls and secret thoughts". During her reign, philosopher, mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer Giordano Bruno took refuge in England from the Italian Inquisition, where he published a number of his books regarding an infinite universe and other topics banned by the Catholic Church. After leaving the safety of England, Bruno was eventually burned as a heretic in Rome for refusing to recant his ideas. For this reason he is considered by some to be a martyr for free thought.

然而，思想自由可以通过审查制度、逮捕、焚书和政治宣传加以限制, and this tends to discourage freedom of thought. Examples of effective campaigns against freedom of expression are the Soviet suppression of genetics research in favor of a theory known as Lysenkoism, the book-burning campaigns of Nazi Germany, the radical anti-intellectualism enforced in Cambodia under Pol Pot, the strict limits on freedom of expression imposed by the Communist governments of the Peoples Republic of China and Cuba or by right-wing authoritarian dictatorships such as those of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Francisco Franco in Spain.

Freedom of expression can also be stifled without institutional interference when majority views become so widely accepted that the entire culture represses dissenting views. For this reason, some condemn political correctness as a form of limiting freedom of thought. Although political correctness aims to give minority views equal representation, the majority view itself can be politically correct; for example, college student Max Karson was arrested following the Virginia Tech shootings for politically incorrect comments that authorities saw as "sympathetic to the killer". Karson's arrest raised important questions regarding freedom of thought and whether or not it applies in times of tragedy.

萨丕尔-沃尔夫猜想则认为，思想自由镶嵌在语言本身之中，因此认为任何试图限制语言使用的行为，事实上是在限制思想自由。在乔治·奥威尔的《1984》中就体现了此见解，作者在书中描述了一种名为“新话”的精简版英语，在这种语言里缺少隐喻，而且对思想的表达起到了限制作用。

参考文献

•  公民權利和政治權利國際公約. 维基文库 （中文）. 
• 《思想自由史》，[英]J.B.Bury 著，宋桂煌 译，吉林人民出版社，1999年12月。