What is Freedom?

Freedom is an attribute of life, and it is human-nature to seek freedom for yourself, but it’s also, unfortunately, equally innate to seek control over others, encroaching on their freedom.

There’s a biological component to Freedom. Both humans and other animals have a deep psychological need for freedom.

What is Freedom?

Isaiah Berlin, who I wrote about in Freedom Technology, defined it in a positive and a negative: positive freedom referring to self-mastery, while negative is simply the absence of coercion.

Libertarians, liberals and republicans view Freedom differently, in fact this is often at the center of their political philosophies, whether they realize it directly or not. One views Freedom as non-domination, another as protection from authority, and the other as complete lack of authoritative coercion.

The stoics would argue that Freedom is simply a state of mind. The ability for psychological mastery and independence.

Marxists view Freedom as the lack of material necessity.

So which one is it? One person may view themselves and their peers as totally free, while another sees them as enslaved.

In my opinion, the most accurate definition of Freedom is the ability to pursue the goals of your life as intensely as you choose, without coercive interference, so long as your pursuit does not deprive others of the same.

Freedom by this definition is mutually respected. The extent of my freedom-of-pursuit ends when it takes the freedom-of-pursuit from another person. No one should interfere with me, and I shouldn’t interfere with anyone else.

Unlike the other definitions, Freedom is not a description of the relationship between man and state, man and mind, or man and material, but between men.

True Freedom doesn’t exist, but the closer we move towards it, the better people will live.