Does Anyone Understand What “Freedom” Means?
By the look of things, not many.
Does Anyone Understand What “Freedom” Means?
Janis Joplin didn’t.
Anarchists don’t.
Trump doesn’t, nor do his followers.
Freedom is a word many people use, but few people have any substantial understanding of the meaning of the concept. To mention that fact isn’t cynical or disparaging. The concept of freedom, like all significant philosophical concepts, is deep, complex, multidimensional, and nuanced. It is beyond simplistic definitions.
And yet, simplistic definitions of “freedom” are mostly what people have in mind and certainly are mostly what people talk about. Freedom is one of, if not the, most important existential and moral concepts.
How we define freedom and how we discuss it have political, moral, and cultural consequences. The topic of what freedom is deserves far more consideration than it is given. So let’s do that, let’s get beyond bumper sticker slogans and insert some philosophy into the discussion of freedom.
N.B. — “Freedom” and “liberty” are synonyms in the English language. “Freedom” comes from the German, “Freiheit” and “liberty” comes from the Latin “liberte.” The words are interchangeable.
