
A broad defination that considers the role of the liberal state in protecting freedom.
November 18, 2003
Are We Autonomous or Heteronomous?: Comparing the two notions to understand freedom.
Considering Freedom: This essay considers the different between liberal and conservative freedoms.
Exploring the Defination of Freedom: Yet another more extensive look at what freedom likely is, and what it is not.
President Bush's Freedom: Why our President's notions of freedom are wrong.
What Does Freedom Mean Today?: A short essay describing four different types of activities that Andrew sees as representing freedom in modern society.
What is the Nature of Freedom?: A comparison of positive and negative freedom in society.
Words of Freedom: Thoughts on the limitations of freedom and life.
Freedom is the ultimate question of society: how to protect it and how to maximize it. It is a question of 'irrationality' and privacy (the ability for the 'irrational' to exist without society attempting to eliminate it), both are essential to protecting what I call freedom.
I don't really care about political or economic freedoms, these items are mostly procedural freedoms for the economic and political elite, not freedoms that we experience on an everyday bases.
Real freedoms are what you can do and what you can't do. Responsible freedom dictates what one can do without greatly harming others substantial rights to freedom. The state has the responsibility to allow you to do as much as any one autonomous individual would want to do in their live times.
This means that the late capitalist state should:
I'm not arguing that this is an extremely controversial doctrine. In particular it means a curtailing of ideologies that believe in the ends over the means for solutions to environmental and safety issues. While we should think about tomorrow, and make plans to establish our reasonable security for tomorrow, we should do so with minimal undermining of our freedom today.
This definition fails to accurately and precisely define freedom. I have worked on defining what it means to be free, without much results. Absolute truths can never be defined, as their absoluteness is beyond words and thoughts.
Copyright ©1999-2008 Andy Arthur.
All mistakes are intentional or otherwise.
Mind where you step in a cow pasture or legal mindfield.