Human Freedom Spinoza

Shad Helmstetter once said, “Choosing to live your life by your own choice is the greatest freedom you will ever have.” It is important that people are able to choose the paths of their own lives. As the quote suggests, the ultimate freedom is choice. Nonetheless, many people are denied this ultimate freedom. In relation to Afghanistan, many women are denied the ability to choose the course of their lives. The oppression of women in Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns, subjects them to total control by men, however, when the prominent woman characters in the novel, such as Mariam and Laila, are able to maintain a sense of control, they pave the paths of their own lives.

There are those who think that our behavior is a result of free choice, but there are also others who believe we are servants of cosmic destiny, and that behavior is nothing but a reflex of heredity and environment. The position of determinism is that every event is the necessary outcome of a cause or set of causes, and everything is a consequence of external forces, and such forces produce all that happens. Therefore, according to this statement, man is not free.

When an individual is born, they are automatically given human rights. Human rights are rights that are entitled to every human regardless of sex, race, ethnic origin, or status. Within our Nation, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were very important documents that changed how we lived. These documents were established on the foundation of human rights because of how essential every man was in the country. Human rights play a major role within our life but not everyone is aware of them. These documents made it clear that human rights allow us to be who we are as an individual and led us to a more equal lifestyle.

When you ask people what freedom is they may respond that freedom is when you can do whatever you want to do at whatever time. Mostly this will be the response of kids and young adults. But this definition of freedom is incorrect. Freedom is when we are allowed to have power of right to act without violating other people's freedoms or rights. The most effective tools for establishing and preserving freedom are strong government and constitution. A quote that can help out the claim comes from the Declaration of independence “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their creator with unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

In 1787 representatives from twelve of the thirteen states met in Pennsylvania for a constitutional convention. Delegates voiced great concern over the protection of individual liberties and personal property. For southern delegates one of the most important liberties was the right to own slaves. While they wanted a federal government that would protect their rights, they did not want a governing body that would emancipate their slaves. There was a notation that the pursuit of happiness was tied to property. As strongly as people might adhere to the notion of liberty and freedom, they adhere just as strongly to the notion of property.

Our world today is filled with unnecessary oppression. Slavery is one common form of human oppression, but there are numerous other forms as well. War, death, hunger, and sadness caused the elders in the society of The Giver to force each citizen to live extremely structured, controlled lives. That structure and control effected each person’s ability to live unique, private, and free lives. The elders in The Giver wanted all the citizens in the community to be undifferentiated for their own safety, so they greatly censored all citizens. Lack of freedom to pursue individual happiness is, indeed, a form of oppression not only faced by fictional book characters, but also by twenty-first century Americans. American society is changing so rapidly that we as independent Americans must decide whether safety, or freedom, is more important.

The power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. A word created by man to escape the bonds of tyranny to express the idea of what it means to persist one's own ambitions. Freedom. Freedom is not the absence of confinement but the will to achieve freedom when imprisoned. After carefully concluding the reading done over this semester one is able to clearly understand the confinement these early Americans felt and their decision to achieve a form of freedom. Freedom has always existed but it is the history of this nation that will define what actions freedom takes.

The will, at its most basic, consists in saying “yes” or “no” to ideas or propositions. Descartes adopts the position that the free will is independent of the deterministic and fundamental laws that govern matter. Human behavior is neither dictated by mechanical compulsion, nor persuaded or coerced by God, nor influenced by any external force to act in a predetermined manner. Descartes, in a bold stroke, proclaims the divine grace of God along with natural knowledge actually increases and strengthens human freedom, as opposed to restricting its effectiveness.

Freedom should be demanded, because not everyone listens when you ask for something, if anything people would laugh at these people who want freedom and not take them seriously when they do ask for freedom. If people take a stand and demand what they really want and show they want it and fight for it there would be people standing up with that one person too, then there would be an uprising on how people need freedom and demand it even more. A great example would be the the day Martin Luther King Jr. took a stand and said his word on how there needs to be freedom and how it must be demanded in order for us to get it, the day the pastor took a stand and demanded freedom for his people (blacks) and as he kept saying his word and talking about freedom for the blacks more and more people agreed with him and took a stand. It is a great example of how freedom should be demanded and not given.

It is human nature to prioritize self-preservation over all other pursuits. As such, when disaster strikes, most humans would rather give up luxuries such as freedom than risk death by whatever danger currently presents itself. Such was the case of the citizens of France under the rule of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon, after his initial rise to power in 1799, sacrificed many of his people's freedoms in order to ensure their security, and the security of France as a nation. Among these sacrifices were freedom of the press, especially in Napoleon's satellite countries such as Germany, where Napoleon's enemies sought to misinform and upset people, attempting to spur them into a revolt. Napoleon also continued the act of conscription, sometimes

Sartre proposes an interesting view on free will when he says, "either man is wholly determined or else man is wholly free." This quote shows us that Sartre believes that man is free to do what he wants. For Sartre, freedom is the most basic value, which renders possible all other values the way our fundamental plan precedes and grounds our small choices. In that sense freedom is the source of all values. It is not logically possible to make sense of human responsibility and notions of justice without a conception of free will. This is because it is free will that allows us as humans to choose and make the right decisions in life.

Harry Frankfurt essay “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person” is centered around two major ideas. First is a person’s will is a set of effective first-order desires, and the second is that a person is a creature that has second-order volitions. Frankfurt offes the concept of a person vested with first-order desires and second-order desires which play the major role in decision making process.

The power of knowing and the power of choosing combined lead one to create faults, nothing more and nothing fewer. A person, God’s creation, is made to decide and follow certain paths, and errors will be made due to the finite abilities of a person. It is a mistake to not take advantage of this freedom of the will, for it is the infinite God’s plan. Descartes’ philosophy revolves around certainty and entrustment of God, so it comes at no surprise the backbone of free will is based on belief of God. Descartes pronounces, “…it is an imperfection in me that I do not use my freedom well” (61-62, Meditations). If free will, or freedom as he states, is misused, that indicates only an imperfection in him. Full responsibility for mishaps in judgments and decisions are only caused by an individual’s finite ability given from an infinite being. Further Descartes says, “…willing is merely a matter of being, able to do or not do the same thing” (57-58, Meditations). Descartes entrusts being alive accompanies obtaining a will. Life accompanies the choice to make certain choices or rather obstain from making choices. This full throttled independence backed in God’s name shines positively in those who believe. The entrustment of the will, that everyone contains a hope of choice and deliverance of ideals if fought for accordingly. Underlining the full fleshed will is a sense

The concept of freedom has long been a popular tenet for philosophers to explore. From ancient Greek origins to the present day, many individuals have discussed the importance of freedom and the role it plays within society in an effort to define its relationship to the human condition. Two philosophers that have studied freedom in depth are John Locke and Immanuel Kant. Both philosophers viewed freedom as playing a major role in society; however, they conceptualized it in different ways, particularly in relation to its role with the nation. Perhaps the most notable aspect of these stances is Kant’s definition of the relationship between freedom, reason, and morality.

“The Bear” is a book written in 1942 by William Faulkner that deals with the life of an ancient bear named Old Ben. Old Ben affects the lives of most hunters that know him, and most importantly it he has a great influence on Ike and the wilderness. “The Bear” is not only about the life of Old Ben, but it is also about the wilderness, racism, possession of land, and the meaning of humanity. The interpretation of wilderness Faulkner present in his book is that the forest represents an essential connection among liberty and humanity (Radloff). Through allusion, William Faulkner uses imagery and symbolism to connect liberty and humanity with the wilderness.