The concepts · Entry

cognitive libertyn.

The capacity of an individual to preserve the conditions under which their judgement is formed autonomously, in an environment that acts directly on attention, perception, information and decision. In Asma Mhalla’s work, cognitive liberty comes before freedom of expression: being able to speak freely still presupposes being able to think, interpret and choose without the very conditions of that thought being wholly captured, saturated or modulated by technical architectures. Power now intervenes in the production of representations, of hierarchies of importance, and of the frames through which reality becomes intelligible. Cognitive liberty thus becomes a political condition of individual autonomy and, more broadly, of democracy.

First public appearance — 4 May 2022, Le Laboratoire de la République · Le rachat de Twitter par Elon Musk : quel impact sur la liberté d’expression ? ↗