The concept of freedom

Abstract

History records various occasions where man strove hard to obtain freedom, or to maintain what he already possessed of it. Every man desires to be free though not all men agree about what constitutes freedom. Too often, freedom is attached to and influenced by political ideologies or religious beliefs. When we ask: 'What is freedom?' we must bear in mind that this concept is predicated in different ways of beings of very different types. Many misunderstand this concept as a 'free-for:-all' principle. Others reduce freedom to a choice between good and evil. Ethics, or moral philosophy, insists that human actions can only be so considered provided that such actions result from man's free will. At the same time, ethics goes into the problem of freedom versus determinism. What do we mean by freedom? Two points may be very useful in discussing freedom (a) freedom of choice: the ability to choose this or that, selecting from various objects/values; (b) freedom as constituting a basic right of man (e.g. the French Revolution sought to present freedom as such. This does not imply that freedom was not a fundamental human right before the American or French Revolutions). This freedom covers the freedom of expression - to express reality as one sees it, the freedom of worship, and the freedom to follow a particular career or state of life. It constitutes man's right to live out his life as he wants to.