Freedom

 

Hear is our problem. In our culture, freedom is so cherished that we are taught that it is worth dying for.

 ("Live free or die"... motto on the New Hampshire license plate.)

 

QUESTIONS:

 

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "FREEDOM"?

Does freedom exist, or is there only necessity?

How is freedom possible in a world governed by natural law?

Can we ever know whether there is freedom?

If there is freedom, is it an either- or proposition, or are there degrees of it?

Can we do anything to maximize it or endanger it?

Do any of these questions matter practically, or are they only of academic interest?

 

I. Metaphysical Freedoms

A. Pure Volitional Freedom

We can conceive of something we might call by this name wherein volition and creation are identical.
If person P is the possessor of this kind of freedom, and if P wants X to happen, X happens automatically because P wants it to do so.  

 

B. Restricted Volitional Freedom

If person P wants X and, by virtue of her desire and effort, gets X, then the act of obtaining X was a free act.

This is the freedom of soft determinism. It definitely does exist. Some people have more of it than others,

and it is quite possible that some societies create conditions that allow more of this freedom than do other societies.

 

C. Mental Freedom

This is the freedom to assent to or dissent from any ascertain or demand.

You can hold a sword to my chest and tell me that I must believe that the emperor is divine and perhaps you can force me to say that I believe so,

but you cannot actually make me believe so.

 

D. Ontological Freedom

This “libertarian” freedom in its more restricted version says that there are almost always alternative possibilities open to us.

 

E. Perverse Freedom

This freedom is the freedom of Dostoyevsky’s underground man.

 

 

II. Practical Freedoms

 

A. Freedom to ...

1. Political Freedom.

This term is meant to designate the type of freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (freedom to worship,

freedom to associate with people of like interest, freedom to state one’s opinion)

 

2. Economic Freedom.

This term designates the right to buy and sell on the open market without unreasonable government interference—

What is meant by “free enterprise?”

 

B. Freedom through ...

This kind of freedom is the result of social agreement and laws of enablement.

For example, our laws creating an educational system provide the freedom to learn;

our laws creating a highway system provide the freedom to travel.

 

C. Freedom from ...  

This kind of freedom designates freedom from hunger, medical burden, unemployment,

and vulnerability in old age. These are relative freedoms,

but we do find some societies more dedicated to guaranteeing these freedoms than others societies are.

I am afraid that in this area (which is, after all, not an unimportant one) we do not have a special right to call ourselves the Free World.

 

So our conclusion is that there is good reason to believe in freedom. but that there is no one thing called

"freedom." A number of areas of human life exist where the concept of freedom correctly applies,

but that concept is not always identical in each of those areas.

Some of these conceptions of freedom are compatible with determinism, some are not.

However, I think it's safe to say that you are free to reject determinism.

 

 

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