Cognitive Freedom as a New Political Freedom of the 21st century

In political science, it is rarely possible to work with a topic of extremely significant social problems that has not yet found a proper understanding by the scientific community. This includes the concept of cognitive freedom, which already claims to be the new political freedom of the 21st century but is practically not represented in the scientific discourse. This article does not claim to be a complete theoretical and methodological representation of cognitive freedom as a political freedom, it is only an invitation to a discussion about its essence, features, practical significance, and many other aspects of this unique phenomenon. A review of publications on the topic of cognitive freedom from the point of view of psychological, neuro-ethical, epistemological, and cognitive trends is conducted; the degree of its study is evaluated; and the results obtained are summarized. The author's contribution to the understanding of cognitive freedom was the substantiation of the diffusive concept of cognitive freedom using a combination of two approaches: implicit cognitive science and political diffusionism. The diffusive concept of cognitive freedom can be formulated as follows: cognitive freedom is the freedom of representation, dissemination, and transmission of knowledge or information by individuals in diffusion networks. The concept “knowledge transfer” is introduced, meaning that its dissemination is carried out under conditions of some restriction of freedom in the form of prohibition, influence, pressure. This is the political nature of diffusion that acquires signs of managing or manipulating participants in the interaction. This concept should develop the concept of cognitive freedom in terms of one of the conditions for its implementation - the freedom to present, receive, distribute, and transmit knowledge in diffusion networks (a communication channel through which information and knowledge flow). The practical significance of the diffusive concept of cognitive freedom lies in its suitability for identifying the possibilities of managing the free process of political diffusion. Several cognitive technologies based on the principles of “cognitive control”, which in fact plays the role of a kind of “limiter” or even an obstacle to the freedom of obtaining, storing or distributing knowledge, are described. The types of cognitive technologies are identified: technologies for managing human cognitive abilities at the level of the unconscious, technologies for managing the process of organizing information, technologies for strategic narratives, and framing technology: technologies for managing mnemonic practices, technologies for controlling social media as communicators.

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