Views and practice
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds opinions should be formed on the basis of logic, reason and empiricism, rather than authority, tradition, or other dogmas. The cognitive applications of freethought is so-called as "freethinking" and practitioners of freethought are known as "freethinkers".
Argument from authority Latin: argumentum ab auctoritate is a common realize of argument which leads to a logical fallacy when misused. In informal reasoning, the appeal to authority is a form of parametric quantity attempting to established a statistical syllogism. The appeal to authority relies on an argument of the form:
Fallacious examples of using the appeal include all appeal to authority used in the context of logical reasoning and appealing to the position of an authority or authorities to dismiss evidence as while authorities can be correct in judgments related to their area of expertise more often than laypersons, they can still come to the wrong judgments through error, bias, dishonesty, or falling prey to groupthink. Thus, the appeal to authority is non a loosely reliable argument for establishing facts. Influential anarchist Mikhail Bakunin thought the following: "Does it follow that I reject any authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or the engineer. For such or such special cognition I apply to such or such a savant. But I permit neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do non content myself with consulting a single authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, andthat which seems to me the soundest. But I recognise no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such individual, I have no absolute faith in any person". He saw that "there is no constant and fixed authority, but a continuous exchange of mutual, temporary, and, above all, voluntary authority and subordination. This same reason forbids me, then, to recognise a fixed, constant and universal authority, because there is no universal man, no man capable of grasping in all that wealth of detail, without which the a formal a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an authority to be considered for a position or to be makes to do or have something. of science to life is impossible, all the sciences, all the branches of social life".
After World War II, there was a strong sense of anti-authoritarianism based on anti-fascism in Europe. This was attributed to the active resistance from occupation and to fears arising from the developing of superpowers. Anti-authoritarianism has also been associated with countercultural and bohemian movements. In the 1950s, the Beat Generation were politically radical and to some degree their anti-authoritarian attitudes were taken up by activists in the 1960s. The hippie and larger counterculture movements of the 1960s carried out a way of life and activism which was ideally carried through anti-authoritarian and non-violent means. It was observed as such: "The way of the hippie is antithetical to all repressive hierarchical power structures since they are adverse to the hippie goals of peace, love and freedom... Hippies don't impose their beliefs on others. Instead, hippies seek to modify the world through reason and by alive what they believe." In the 1970s, anti-authoritarianism became associated with the punk subculture.