ModernMind
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Tracing the ideas that created the modern world
The Radical Idea That You Own Yourself
How a simple philosophical principle demolished slavery and continues to reshape debates about freedom, medicine, and human dignity
Why Voltaire Defended His Enemies: The Counterintuitive Logic of Free Speech
Discover why protecting offensive speech isn't noble charity but strategic self-defense against the machinery of suppression that history shows always changes hands.
Enlightenment's Dark Side: When Reason Justified Oppression
How the architects of reason built elaborate justifications for slavery, colonialism, and exclusion—and why their principles outlived their prejudices
The Invention of Tolerance: How Religious Wars Created Secular Democracy
Discover how Europe's bloodiest religious conflicts forged the unlikely foundations of modern democracy and freedom of thought
Why Your Right to Privacy Started with a Man Reading His Mail in 1760
Discover how 18th-century mail privacy battles created the philosophical foundation for digital rights and human dignity in the surveillance age