Philosophers throughout thehistory of philosophy have been held in courts and tribunals for various offenses, often as a result of their philosophical activity, and some have even been put to death. The most famous example of a philosopher being put on trial is the case ofSocrates, who was tried for, amongst other charges, corrupting the youth and impiety.[1]
Thetrial of Socrates took place in 399 BC. Attended by the Ancient Greek philosophersPlato (who was a student of Socrates') andXenophon, it resulted in the death of Socrates, who was sentenced to drink the poisonhemlock. The trial is chronicled in the Platonic dialoguesEuthyphro,Apology,Crito, andPhaedo.
The Roman emperorsNero,Vespasian, andDomitian each faced opposition fromStoic statesmen, culminating in executions of opponents and banishment of other philosophers from Rome, includingMusonius Rufus andEpictetus.
Hypatia (c. 350–370 - 415) was aHellenisticNeoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived inAlexandria, Egypt, then part of theEastern Roman Empire. She was murdered by a mob of Christians, likely for political reasons.
Giordano Bruno was an ItalianDominicanfriar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, andHermetic occultist,[2] known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then-novelCopernican model, proposing that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their ownplanets, raising the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own (a cosmological position known ascosmic pluralism), and insisting that the universe isinfinite and could have no "center".
Starting in 1593, Bruno was tried forheresy by theRoman Inquisition on charges of denial of several core Catholic doctrines, includingeternal damnation, theTrinity, thedivinity of Christ, thevirginity of Mary, andtransubstantiation. Bruno'spantheism was not taken lightly by the church,[3] nor was his teaching of thetransmigration of the soul andreincarnation. The Inquisition found him guilty, and he wasburned at the stake in Rome'sCampo de' Fiori in 1600. After his death, he gained considerable fame, being particularly celebrated by 19th- and early 20th-century commentators who regarded him as a martyr for science, although most historians agree that his heresy trial was not a response to his cosmological views but rather a response to his religious views.[4][5][6][7][8] However some recent research[9] suggests that main reason for Bruno's death indeed was his cosmological views. Bruno's case is still considered a landmark in the history offree thought and the emerging sciences.[10][11]
Tommaso Campanella was confined to aconvent for his heretical views, namely, an opposition to the authority ofAristotle. Later, he then spent twenty-seven years imprisoned in a castle during which he wrote his most famous works, includingThe City of the Sun.[12]
Baruch Spinoza, was a Jewish philosopher who, at age 23, was put incherem (similar to excommunication) byJewish religious authorities forheresies such as his controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of theHebrew Bible (which would form the foundations of modernbiblical criticism) and his pantheistic views of the Divine.[13] Prior to that, he had been attacked on the steps of the community synagogue by a knife-wielding assailant shouting "Heretic!",[14] and later his books were added to the Catholic Church'sIndex of Forbidden Books. In June 1678 - just over a year after Spinoza's death - theStates of Holland banned his entire works, since they “contain very many profane, blasphemous and atheistic propositions.” The prohibition included the owning, reading, distribution, copying, and restating of Spinoza's books, and even the reworking of his fundamental ideas.[15]
For Bruno was claiming for the philosopher a principle of free thought and inquiry which implied an entirely new concept of authority: that of the individual intellect in its serious and continuing pursuit of an autonomous inquiry… It is impossible to understand the issue involved and to evaluate justly the stand made by Bruno with his life without appreciating the question of free thought and liberty of expression. His insistence on placing this issue at the center of both his work and of his defense is why Bruno remains so much a figure of the modern world. If there is, as many have argued, an intrinsic link between science and liberty of inquiry, then Bruno was among those who guaranteed the future of the newly emerging sciences, as well as claiming in wider terms a general principle of free thought and expression.
In Rome, Bruno was imprisoned for seven years and subjected to a difficult trial that analyzed, minutely, all his philosophical ideas. Bruno, who in Venice had been willing to recant some theses, become increasingly resolute and declared on 21 December 1599 that he 'did not wish to repent of having too little to repent, and in fact did not know what to repent.' Declared an unrepentant heretic and excommunicated, he was burned alive in the Campo dei Fiori in Rome on Ash Wednesday, 17 February 1600. On the stake, along with Bruno, burned the hopes of many, including philosophers and scientists of good faith like Galileo, who thought they could reconcile religious faith and scientific research, while belonging to an ecclesiastical organization declaring itself to be the custodian of absolute truth and maintaining a cultural militancy requiring continual commitment and suspicion.