Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
and
autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself their own laws", and with having
rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical th ...
and the
civil liberties with which to exercise them without undue interference by the state. Frequently discussed kinds of political freedom include
freedom of assembly
Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared id ...
,
freedom of association
Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline mem ...
,
freedom of choice, and
freedom of speech.
In one definition, something is "free" if it can change easily and is not constrained in its present state. In
philosophy and
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural ...
, freedom is sometimes associated with
free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to a ...
, without undue or unjust constraints on that will, such as
enslavement. It is an idea closely tied with the concept of
negative liberty.
Charles Taylor resolves one of the issues that separate "positive" and "negative" theories of freedom, as these were initially distinguished in Isaiah Berlin's seminal essay, "Two concepts of liberty". Taylor sees it as undeniable that there are two such families of conceptions of political freedom. Negative liberty is a concept that is often used in political philosophy. It is the idea that freedom means an ability to do what one wants, without external obstacles. This concept has been called too simplistic for discounting the importance of individual self-realization. Positive liberty is the ability to fulfill one's purposes.
Types
In political discourse,
political freedom is often associated with
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
and
autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself their own laws", and with having
rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical th ...
and the
civil liberties with which to exercise them without undue interference by the state. Frequently discussed kinds of political freedom include
freedom of assembly
Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared id ...
,
freedom of association
Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline mem ...
,
freedom of choice, and
freedom of speech.
In some occasions, particularly when discussion is limited to political freedoms, the terms "freedom" and "liberty" tend to be used interchangeably.
[Anna Wierzbicka, ''Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words'' (1997), p. 130-31: "Unfortunately... the English words freedom and ]liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
are used interchangeably. This is confusing because these two do not mean the same, and in fact what saiahBerlin calls "the notion of 'negative' freedom" has become largely incorporated in the word ''freedom'', whereas the word ''liberty'' in its earlier meaning was much closer to the Latin libertas and in its current meaning reflects a different concept, which is a product of the Anglo-Saxon culture". Elsewhere, subtle distinctions between freedom and liberty are noted.
[Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, ''Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics'' (2008), p. 9: "Although used interchangeably, freedom and liberty have significantly different etymologies and histories. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the Old English ''frei'' (derived from Sanskrit) meant dear and described all those close or related to the head of the family (hence friends). Conversely in Latin, ''libertas'' denoted the legal state of freedom versus enslavement and was later extended to children (''liberi''), meaning literally the free members of the household. Those who are one's friends are free; those who are not are slaves".] John Stuart Mill differentiated liberty from freedom in that freedom is primarily, if not exclusively, the ability to do as one wills and what one has the power to do, whereas liberty concerns the absence of arbitrary restraints and takes into account the rights of all involved. As such, the exercise of liberty is subject to capability and limited by the rights of others.
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun explains the differences in terms of their relation to institutions:
Another distinction that some political theorists have deemed important is that people may aspire to have freedom ''from'' limiting forces (such as
freedom from fear,
freedom from want, and
freedom from discrimination The right to freedom from discrimination is internationally recognised as a human right and enshrines the principle of egalitarianism. The right to freedom from discrimination is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined ...
), but descriptions of freedom and liberty generally do not invoke having liberty ''from'' anything.
To the contrary, the concept of
negative liberty refers to the liberty one person may have to restrict the rights of others.
Other important fields in which freedom is an issue include
economic freedom
Economic freedom, or economic liberty, is the ability of people of a society to take economic actions. This is a term used in economic and policy debates as well as in the philosophy of economics. One approach to economic freedom comes from the ...
,
academic freedom
Academic freedom is a moral and legal concept expressing the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teac ...
,
intellectual freedom
Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas without restriction. Viewed as an integral component of a democratic society, intellectual freedom protects an individual's right to access, explore, consider, and ...
,
scientific freedom
Academic freedom is a moral and legal concept expressing the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teach ...
and
political freedom.
See also
*
Internet freedom Internet freedom is an umbrella term that encompasses digital rights, freedom of information, the right to Internet access, freedom from Internet censorship, and net neutrality.
Some believe that Internet freedom is not a human right. They thin ...
*
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions '' Morgan v. Virginia ...
*
Freethought
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other meth ...
* ''
Statue of Freedom
The ''Statue of Freedom'', also known as ''Armed Freedom'' or simply ''Freedom'', is a bronze statue designed by Thomas Crawford (1814–1857) that, since 1863, has crowned the dome of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Origin ...
'', an 1863 sculpture by
Thomas Crawford atop the dome of the US Capitol
*
Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''), 1886 statue by
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in New York City
* ''
Goddess of Liberty (Texas State Capitol), Goddess of Liberty'', an 1888 statue by
Elijah E. Myers atop the
Texas State Capitol
The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the American state of Texas. Located in Downtown Austin, downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. ...
dome, in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
*''
Miss Freedom'', 1889 statue on the dome of the Georgia State Capitol (US)
*''
Freedom'', 1985 statue by
Alfred Tibor in Columbus, Ohio
*
Freedom songs
Freedom songs were songs which were sung by participants in the civil rights movement. They are also called "civil rights anthems" or, in the case of songs which are more hymn-like, they are called "civil rights hymns."
Freedom songs were an imp ...
References
External links
"Freedom" BBC Radio 4 discussion with John Keane, Bernard Williams & Annabel Brett (''In Our Time'', 4 July 2002)
{{Wikiquote, Freedom
Social concepts
Rights