Thought Control, Historiography and the Contemporary Murk

Fiction and Neuroscience in the Light of von Wright, Orwell and Hitchens

In an age shaped by algorithmic influence, information overload, and shifting notions of truth, it is vital to understand how ideas of free will, historical agency, and the self are constructed — by language, by the brain, and by structures of power. Through reading philosophy, literature, and contemporary neuroscience, we form narratives that shape our worldview and, by extension, our democratic resilience.

Even if free will is, in some sense, an illusion, the illusion itself has real political consequences — and must therefore be defended as though it were true. And even if both the self and free will are neurobiological constructions, we must understand and protect them as if they were real — because our stories about reality shape both power and resistance, as well as the foundations of democracy.

Read the full essay in English and Swedish in the enclosed PDF – see the PDF icons below.