Lesson 7: Freedom

• Freedom or Liberty is a social and political concept which has great significance in how people participate in society
• Freedom of an individual from oppression, compulsion, or coercion from other persons, an authority figure or from society itself.
• Positive Liberty is from person taking control of his or her own life and fulfilling one’s potential
• Negative Liberty is from external restraint, barriers, and other interferences from other people
• Liberalism upholds the preservation of individual rights and stresses the role of the government protecting these civil liberties.
• Libertarianism believes that the individual, not the government, is the best judge in upholding and exercising rights.
• Socialism considers freedom as a freedom to acquire economic resources and the ability to work and act according to one’s desire.
• Two Types of Rights: Natural and Legal
• Natural Rights which are innate in the person
• Legal Rights based on society’s customs and laws and are enacted by legislation and enforced by government
• Philosophers relate human freedom to the concept of human agency, which refers to the capacity of a person to act and exert control over his or her behavior.
• Human freedom is expressed in two ways: free will and free action
• Free Will is the capacity to choose different set of options or
• Free Action is the capacity to act upon a decision or a
• Can prevent us from excercising our freedom: Constraints on free actions and Constraints on free will
• Constraints of Free Actions: Prohibitions, Laws, Other social controls imposed, disability/sickness, coercion exerted by another person, weather, poverty, or accidents
• Constraints on Free Will: Manipulation, Brainwashing, Coercion against one's will
• Determinism is a philosophical view that believes that every event in the world is brought about by underlying causes or factors.
• We can effectively exercise freedom in our life by Concept of moral responsibility, Free will, Control and regulation, Our interactions with other people in society
• Concept of moral responsibility refers to a person’s status of deserving praise and reward, or blame and punishment for an action.
• Free will is necessary.
• Control and regulation are necessary elements in the responsible exercise of freedom.
• Our interactions with other people in society is also an important influence in the proper exercise of freedom.
• Faculties model is that we have the free will to act because we have mental faculties that includes rationality
• Hierarchical Model is that free will is viewed as a step by step process in achieving our wants
• Reason-response view is that we have the free will to act upon base on reason whether we do things or not to do things
• 3 Concept of Liberty: Liberalism, Libertarianism, and Socialism