Defining Freedom, Essay Example

Introduction

Freedom means something different for every person. Brennan and Schmidtz (1) state that “There are several forms of liberty. Whether they are conflicting or complementary is a matter of historical circumstance”. The author of the current study will review the different conceptions of freedom and compare them with the official definition in order to reveal how the term’s meaning has changed over the centuries, and how it can mean a different type of liberty for every person.

Definitions

The Reference Dictionary provides seven different definitions for “freedom”, with the main one being: “the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint”. (The Reference Dictionary)

Further definitions also state that the lack of restraint to act is a state of freedom, and the power to determine action. Therefore, the main definition is based on humans’ free will and lack of constraints to act.

The legal definition of “freedom, according to The Law Dictionary is:

“The state of being free; liberty; self-determination; absence of restraint; the opposite of slavery. The power of acting, in the character of a moral personality, according to the dictates of the will, without other check, hindrance, or prohibition than such as may be imposed by just and necessary laws and the duties of social life. The prevalence, in the government and constitution of a country, of such a system of laws and institutions as secure civil liberty to the individual citizen.” (The Legal Dictionary)

While the legal definition of freedom is based on the government’s responsibilities, it is important to review the text above to reveal the unique characteristics of the explanation.

One of the main theme that is included in the definition above is “free will”. Therefore, if somebody is able to make choices based on their free will, they must be free. This is an interesting approach, however, it does bring up an interesting question. When people have free will and they remain unrestricted to act upon it, they might be free to cause harm for others. The definition also states that freedom is the “lack of restraints” from social norms, and laws.

Examining the above identified patterns of “freedom” definitions, there are three important expressions to analyze further: constraint, free will, and acting.

The individual meaning of freedom

For many people, freedom is subjective. While they might not be physically restricted to act, they might feel like moral norms or the law create boundaries for their freedom. The lack of freedom can be a result of moral, legal, political, or physical restraints. A person who is made to marry somebody to comply with his family’s orders might feel like they are not free to act as they want to. However, this is not the case. While they are bound to customs of their family, they are restricted. However, they have the freedom to choose to break up with their family and exercise their free will, provided that they are able to deal with the consequences, such as the lack of financial support.

One cannot claim that they lack freedom because they do not have financial freedom. The term is often used by people to describe the state when one has no money worries. However, one’s free will allows them to act as they want, and  – unless they are restrained from getting a job or education – they are responsible for their situation. We all make free choices, and if they restrict our lives, we are the ones o blame.

There is another interesting expression related to freedom that the author of the current essay would like to examine. We often say that “our hands are tied”, suggesting that we are not able to act as we would like to. However, in most cases, we have a choice, we just need to chose the option that is more favorable than others. Our hands are, indeed, not tied, we just need to compromise. This is why it is beneficial to examine what Brennan and Schmidtz (7) says about liberty: “we can define ‘liberty’ as an absence of obstacles deliberately imposed by other people”.  Based on that definition, it is evident that when many people claim that “their hands are tied”, their inability to act from their free will is not the result of other people imposing obstacles. It is more like a way of life. We have to compromise and make decisions to act in a way that delivers the best possible option.

People claim that they have a lack of freedom, when they actually do. We all hear the expression “I had no other choice” when the person actually did. Indeed, we should take on the attitude of Robert Frost, who says in “The Road Not Taken”:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Conclusion

It has been identified that freedom means different things for every person, and many claim that they have no freedom, while indeed they do, but they have to make a choice between two unfavorable actions. As a conclusion, freedom should be defined as one’s ability to act of their free will, based on their principles, without physical, legal, and institutional restraints willfully posed on the person by others.
Works Cited

Brennan, Jason and David Schmidtz. “Conceptions of Freedom.” Cato Unbound. 2010. Web. URL=http://www.cato-unbound.org/2010/03/10/david-schmidtz-and-jason-brennan/conceptions-of-freedom/.

Frost, R. “The Road Not Taken”. 1915. Print.

The Law Dictionary. “Freedom” n.d. Web. URL= http://thelawdictionary.org/freedom/

The Reference Dictionary. “Freedom” n.d. Web. URL= http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freedom