FREEDOM: HOW FREE IS FREE?

A Concept Paper

Submitted to:

Prof. IRMA R. TAN

Submitted by:

MARC JOSEPH T. LOYOLA

Comm2 – B1

January 28, 2010

One of the most frequent issues which strikes every democratic country and is still

unresolved is the issue on freedom. Democracy is a kind of government in which people are said

to be free. It is where freedom exists in the form of rights of the people. For example, people

have the right of speech, wherein people can make known their opinions and preferences

regarding the government. Such freedom is an important element for a government to be called a

democratic one. However, it is not always the case. The privileged few who hold the power and

sit in the high ranking positions impose rules and regulations or use their authoritative power to

make things happen, which would, most probably, suppress the people’s rights and their freedom

(Fromm, 1991). However, the main point here is not democracy but understanding freedom

itself.

More than anything else, it would be necessary for a person to grasp the meaning of

something which he or she has but unconscious if he or she still has it until it is lost – freedom.

The word was formed by combining the root word free and the suffix –dom. The word free

originally meant “beloved” or “dear one.” Accordingly, in another definition from the Old

English, free came from the word freo, which meant “exempt from” or “not in bondage” from

which the present definitions of the word freedom was derived. Moreover, the suffix -dom is

combined with different words to form nouns which refer to domain as in kingdom, collection of

persons as in officialdom, rank or station as in earldom, or general conditions as in freedom

(Etymonline.com, 2010). From these, it can be inferred that freedom is a condition or state of

being free from constraints. It may sound as plain as this but a greater complexity is implied

behind the numerous definitions of the word.

One thing that makes it difficult to understand is that freedom is a concept, not a percept

(Landry, 2006). It is not just a mere product of human’s perception with a full understanding of

what it is but it is an idea that evolved from the people’s analysis of their situation. Freedom,

sometimes interchanged with liberty, is often used to refer to independence especially by the

people who were ones colonized or were under control of a powerful individual like the

Philippines. For the less fanciful, freedom means exemption or release from slavery or

imprisonment. It may also mean an exemption from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic control, for

short, independence as it was mentioned earlier. Accordingly, it is the state of being able to act or

not to act according as we shall choose. For some, it may mean being able to do what he or she

wants but it is a wrong perception (123HelpMe.com, 2010).

Freedom is something more than the things mentioned earlier. In search for its true

essence, different people came up with different philosophies to better understand the meaning of

freedom. The late US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of his speeches, proclaimed the

freedom of men or the four different freedoms of humans. First of which is the freedom of

speech and expression. The words themselves denote what kind of freedom this is. It means

people are free to express their opinions and what they have to say. As pointed out earlier, it is

one of the important elements that characterize a democratic country where the United States of

America is an example. In fact all other three are, as well, characteristics of a democratic

country. The second freedom is the freedom of belief. People are given rights to freely choose

their religion of their will. They possess the power to worship the god they chose to have faith in.

The third one is the freedom from want. It means an economic understanding that would benefit

the individual or groups of individual. Freedom from want is some kind of enlightenment which

would free the individual from disadvantages which wanting would bring. The last freedom

pointed out by Roosevelt is the freedom from fear. In other terms, it can be restated as freedom

from the thought or possibility of putting into harm or endangering one’s self. Like the freedom

from want, freedom from fear is interpreted as the understanding of situations which would free

the individuals involved and would get the most benefit. On a larger scale, freedom from fear can

be illustrated by a country’s endeavour to discern things and avoid harming its neighbouring

countries. This idea of Roosevelt was contested by some but it set the stage of what freedom is

(Crowley, 2001).

Furthermore, in the works cited by William Ebenstein (1972), Thomas Hobbes proposed

two liberties that an individual possessed. One of which is positive freedom and the other is

negative freedom. Similar idea was also presented by Isaiah Berlin when he drew out the

distinction between positive freedom and negative freedom. According to him, negative freedom

can be said as freedom from. On the other hand, positive freedom can be translated as freedom to.

An example of the former is freedom from oppression, freedom from marginalization, freedom

from poverty and the like. This means that negative freedom is liberation or being free from

something which may have been undesirable. In contrast, positive freedom is having the

freedom, ability, power, or autonomy to do something he or she wills. Positive freedom is

illustrated in examples like freedom to develop one’s potentials, freedom to speak, freedom to

choose his or her bet for presidency, freedom to live the kind of life he or she want, etc.

Landry (2006) asserted that freedom is not a rigid physical thing. It is one that is

intangible and is not to be directly sensed. Instead, it is a concept or a mental construction which

cannot be described in exact and absolute terms. However it should be emphasized that the

precious right of freedom can only be possessed by an individual. It is not like a parcel of land

which many people share but it is something that a person has or not. It’s either a person has

freedom or not.

Indeed, there are a lot of definitions that talk about liberty and freedom. All of those can

be summarized as the absence of restraint (123HelpMe.com, 2010). However, other definitions

seem to be different from the common ones. Saint Thomas of Aquinas gave a different meaning

to freedom. He even showed how an individual can be liberated or freed even in the state of not

being free. It seems hard to understand but it’s not. He gave an example of slavery. During his

time, the Medieval time, slavery was still frequent. His philosophy about governance was

theocratic. The sovereign one mandated by God and slaves ought to obey their masters.

Technically, the slaves were not free. They have no rights to do what they want and they were

bound to follow their master’s orders. In this state of being unfree, slaves can be free by doing

their master’s orders for themselves and not for their masters. In this way, the slaves are no

longer obeying their master but their own will, thus they get their freedom (Ebenstein, 1972). In

addition, another definition is from Christian view. Freedom is viewed as liberation from. To

commit sin is to be a slave of sin and to be free is to follow Jesus, who is the Truth.

Freedom is not something that is gained through the efforts of shedding blood and tears

of one’s ancestors, rather, it is something with which every person is born. It comes with life’s

whole package. Jean Jacques Rousseau asserted that the condition of freedom was inherent to

humanity. At the moment an individual is born, he or she already possesses his or her freedom.

Jean-Paul Sartre even claimed that humans are condemned to be free. People always have

choices and this justifies what Sartre said (Landry, 2006).

It should be clear that freedom is not a measurable physical thing, that is, it cannot be

measured by any objective standard. It exists within humans from the point of birth up to the

very moment of his or her death. However, it only exists in different degrees. Freedom is in fact

fundamental to human life, as fundamental as the air one breathes: there is no excitement in its

experience but in its absence, misery comes. John Stuart Mill described freedom that the only

freedom which deserves its name is that or pursuing one own good in his or her own way so long

as he or she does not attempt to derive others their or impede their efforts to obtain it. It means

that freedom is limited and as mentioned, exists only to some degrees. Suarez (2009) noted that

there is no absolute freedom. If there is such, chaos is what’s going to follow. Rousseau even

took fame when he said that man is born free but everywhere he is in chains. A fish, for example,

is free to swim around in any body of water; however the freedom of the fish is only limited to

within the water. It is the same with the human freedom.

The question then is how to secure the greatest possible freedom for all. Man is given the

freedom to act according to his will so long as others rights are not violated. If other’s freedom

has been invaded, then it’s another story. Securing freedom can be done by restricting the

freedom of all by rules that preclude coercion by or of other people. This is where the

government comes in. Freedom depends upon the combination of the individual and his or her

environment (Bay, 1971). Thus, freedom depends on every government under which a person

lives. For short, the concept of freedom is relative to the notion of law.

It can then be concluded that freedom is a state of being, where an individual is the pilot

of himself, where he or she is free to put at stake his own life, time, and properties. His actions

cost his own benefits. In other words, one is bound to accept the consequences of his or her

actions. Equipped with freedom, he or she has the choice and he or she should pay for the choice

he or she made. With freedom comes great responsibility (123HelpMe.com, 2010). This is one

thing to be remembered by an individual who is free. It is important to note that results of one’s

actions do not only affect him or herself but it also affects the people around him or her.

On the other way around, there are still complex things which are to be understood about

freedom. Here is a situation whether or not a person is free. Suppose a man sleeps in side a room.

The door was locked while he was asleep, thus imprisoning him. The moment before he

awakens, the door was opened. The question is if he is free. This particular situation seems

complicated but it can be explained. The man was free to sleep and if he woke while the door

was locked, he was free to move about in the room but he was not free to leave. Situations like

these illustrate the complexity of the idea of freedom (Suarez, 2009).

It was pointed that freedom is the absence of constraint. It is the inherent ability

possessed from birth to do things of a person’s will, however freedom exists only on limited

degree and is relative to the circumstance. It only exists only in cases where the individual does

not invade the freedom of other persons. There is no absolute freedom.

References:

123HelpMe.com. 2010. Freedom and Responsibility. 2010, Jan 25. <http://www.123HelpMe.co/view.asp?id=66393>.

123HelpMe.com. 2010. The Meaning of Freedom. 2010, Jan 25. <http://www.123HelpMe.co/view.asp?id=15692>.

Answers.com. 2010. Freedom. 2010, Jan 25. <http://www.answers.com/topic/freedom>.

Bay, Christian. 1971. The Structure of Freedom. California: Stanford University Press.

Carter, Ian. 2007. Freedom. 2010, Jan 25. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty_positive_negative/>.

Crowley, John. 2001. Four Freedoms. USA: HarperCollins.

Ebenstein, William. 1972. The Great Political Thinkers. New York: Avon Books.

Etymonline.com. 2010. Freedom. 2010, Jan 25. <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=free&searchmode=none>.

Fromm, Erich. 1991. Escape from Freedom. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Landry, Peter. 2006. On Liberty. 2010, Jan 25. <http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/BluePete/Liberty.htm>.

Suarez, Daniel. 2009. Freedom. New York: Penguin Group Inc.