foreword both studying natural sciences. The man on the right is a Dane, while on the left is Peter Forsskål, a Finnish-Swedish student at Uppsala University, who went on to be one of Carl Linnaeus’ famous Apostles. They went butterfly collecting near Göttingen in about 1750. Afterwards they continued their academic hunt in the library of the university there. It was in Göttingen that Forsskål studied theology and successfully presented a thesis on philosophy, inspired by David Hume. He later returned to Uppsala where he published his pamphlet Tankar omBorgerliga Friheten(‘Thoughts on civil liberty’) in 1759. Duly censored, it dealt with the freedoms and rights of the citizen. The most important passages concern freedom of expression and information. Nowadays Forsskål’s Tankar have been translated into some twenty languages.1 He even has his own website, with full texts of his work available. The systematization of his thoughts illustrates how the Enlightenment addressed the past, but also how it set out a new cognitive structure for the relationship of state, society, and individual citizen. His Tankar are arranged as twenty-one paragraphs, which I would précis as follows: 1 Peter Forsskål, Tankar om borgerliga friheten: Originalmanuskriptet med bakgrundsteckning/Thoughts on civil liberty: Translation of the original manuscript with background, ed. David Goldberg, Gunilla Jonsson, Helena Jäderblom, Gunnar Persson & Thomas von Vegesack with David Shaw (Stockholm: Atlantis, 2009); see also Ulla Carlsson & David Goldberg, The Legacy of Peter Forsskål, 250 Years of freedom of Expression(Gothenburg: Nordicom, 2017). 13 Liberty. The limitations of liberty and no harm to others. Civil liberty and the virtues of the citizen. Privileges and the abuse of power. A republic is not a guarantee against abuse by the privileged. 1 2 3 4 5 The unrestricted ruler hides injustices, so freedom of expression is needed. 6 Limited government and freedom of the written word, though within certain limits. 7 Freedom of expression. Further thoughts on freedom of expression. 8 9
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