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Freedom | Part of a series on | | Liberalism | |---| Freedom is the power or
right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving
oneself one's own laws".
In one definition, something is "free" if it can change and is not constrained
in its present state.
Physicists and chemists use the word in this sense.
In its origin, the English word "freedom" relates etymologically to the word
"friend".
Philosophy and religion sometimes associate it with free will, as an alternative
to determinism or predestination.
In modern liberty nations, freedom is considered a right, especially freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press.
Types In political discourse, political freedom is often associated with liberty
and autonomy, and a distinction is made between countries that are free of
dictatorships.
In the area of civil rights, a strong distinction is made between freedom and
slavery and there is conflict between people who think all races, religions,
genders, and social classes should be equally free and people who think freedom
is the exclusive right of certain groups.
Frequently discussed are freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of
choice, and freedom of speech.
Liberty Sometimes the terms denoting to "freedom" and "liberty" are used
interchangeably.
Sometimes subtle distinctions are made between "freedom" and "liberty" John
Stuart Mill, for example, 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.
Isaiah Berlin made a distinction between "positive" freedom and "negative"
freedom in his seminal 1958 lecture "Two concepts of liberty".
Charles Taylor elaborates that negative liberty means an ability to do what one
wants, without external obstacles and positive liberty is the ability to fulfill
one's purposes.
Another way to describe negative liberty is freedom from limiting forces (such
as freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom from discrimination), but
descriptions of freedom and liberty generally do not invoke having liberty from
anything.
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun explains these differences in terms of their relation to
institutions: "Liberty is linked to human subjectivity; freedom is not.
The Declaration of Independence, for example, describes men as having liberty
and the nation as being free.
Free will--the quality of being free from the control of fate or necessity--may
first have been attributed to human will, but Newtonian physics attributes
freedom--degrees of freedom, free bodies--to objects." "Freedom differs from
liberty as control differs from discipline.
Liberty, like discipline, is linked to institutions and political parties,
whether liberal or libertarian; freedom is not.
Although freedom can work for or against institutions, it is not bound to
them--it travels through unofficial networks.
To have liberty is to be liberated from something; to be free is to be
self-determining, autonomous.
Freedom can or cannot exist within a state of liberty: one can be liberated yet
unfree, or free yet enslaved (Orlando Patterson has argued in Freedom: Freedom
in the Making of Western Culture that freedom arose from the yearnings of
slaves)." From domination Freedom from domination was considered by Phillip
Pettit, Quentin Skinner and John P.
Mc Cormick as a defining aspect of freedom.
While operative control is the ability to direct ones actions on a day-to-day
basis, that freedom can depend on the whim of another, also known as reserve
control.
Phillip Petit and Jamie Susskind argue that both operative and reserve control
are needed for democracy and freedom.
See also - Freedom, 1985 statue by Alfred Tibor in Columbus, Ohio - Freedom &
Civilization, 1944 book by Bronislaw Malinowski about freedom from
anthropological perspective - Freedom of thought - Freedom Riders - civil-rights
activists - Freedom songs - Harm principle - Internet freedom - List of freedom
indices - Miss Freedom, 1889 statue on the dome of the Georgia State Capitol (U
S) - Real Freedom, a term coined by political philosopher and economist
Phillippe Van Parijs - Statue of Freedom, an 1863 sculpture by Thomas Crawford
atop the dome of the U S Capitol References - ^ Stevenson, Angus; Lindberg,
Christine A., eds.
(2010-01-01). "New Oxford American Dictionary". Oxford Reference.
doi:10.1093/acref/9780195392883.001.0001. ISB N 978-0-19-539288-3.
Archived from the original on 2020-03-12.
Retrieved 2023-06-02.[clarification needed] - ^ a b "free".
Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.
(Subscription or participating institution membership required.) - ^ Baumeister,
Roy F.; Monroe, Andrew E.
"Recent Research on Free Will".
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. 1-52.
doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-800284-1.00001-1. ISB N 978-0128002841.
130-131: "Unfortunately...
the English words freedom and liberty are used interchangeably.
This is quite wrong because these two do not mean the same, and in fact what
[Isaiah] Berlin 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".
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".
Philosophical Papers: Volume 2, Philosophy and the Human Sciences.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. ISB N 978-0521317498.
Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
Four Essays on Liberty. 1969.
Political Studies. 49 (5): 851-876. doi:10.1111/1467-9248.00344.
ISS N 0032-3217. - ^ Shnayderman, Ronen (2012). "Liberal vs.
Republican Notions of Freedom".
Political Studies. 60 (1): 44-58. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.2011.00900.x.
Norton & Company. pp. ISB N 978-0-393-06397-4. - ^ Susskind, Jamie (2022).
The digital republic: on freedom and democracy in the 21st century (1st ed.).
New York London: Pegasus Books. ISB N 978-1-64313-901-2.
External links - "Freedom", BB C Radio 4 discussion with John Keane, Bernard
Williams & Annabel Brett (In Our Time, 4 July 2002)
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