Surely Socrates has to be considered the original freethinker. It was his ability to wander around 5th Century Athens, approaching just about anyone he fancied and ask them to explain with precision why they held certain commonsense beliefs and what they took to be the meaning of life. And once Socrates had you cornered he was not in the habit of letting you go before he had interrogated you from every angle. Many found the questioning maddening - many teased him and ultimately a few of them would insist on his death. At his trial, he refused to give up his rational beliefs and was forced to drink hemlock - he accepted his fate in a most logical and calm manner. The topics discussed by Socrates may have dated but the underlying truths have not -that is just because someone has a lot of money or a lofty position, or a traditional viewpoint doesn't mean that the views they hold are correct; he felt that far too often views were not examined objectively. Even in our lowly subject of marketing, we at Libertine like to challenge statements that are confidently described as commonsense, or conventional wisdom and see whether they are false, or at least imprecise and apply a little logical interrogation of which Socrates would have been proud.