Freedom

Freedom

The freedom is an abstract concept difficult to define; in principle, it is linked to the faculty that every living being has to carry out an action according to its own will .

From the eighteenth century , freedom began to join other faculties or virtues, such as justice and equality . This social change was accompanied by the development of new forms of organization of society and the emergence of previously unpublished political regimes.

A free being is not tied to the will of others in a coercive way . Freedom guarantees respect for individual will and implies that each one must be responsible for their actions. It is known as libertinism to absolute freedom, which inevitably leads to social unrest .

For example: a person can make use of his freedom to create a business and obtain, through commercial activity, the resources that allow him to survive. That freedom, however, is limited by the Law, which prohibits you from selling products that do not meet a series of requirements and that oblige you to pay taxes. These impositions, on clarification, exceed the will of the subject; however, given the way in which human beings organize our life, they do not attempt against their freedom.

This leaves in evidence a very particular question: there is no absolute freedom. In this regard, there are various positions, but none that ensures the possibility of maintaining our moral and ethical principles in force at the same time that we break with our invisible barriers and act with complete ease at every step. In those codes , invented by our species, resides the reason (by many irrefutable) of the limits of freedom.

Take for example three prohibitionsthat most people believe we understand, that we accept as fair and reasonable: we can not take what belongs to others; we can not have sex with our parents or siblings; we can not kill another human being. Theft and murder are crimes punishable by the laws of each country, and incest can be seen in different ways, but the moral to which we respond in our culture tells us that it is something disgusting and unnatural, something we would never do .

We do not enjoy absolute freedom because we prefer the comfort that comes from having someone organize our lives and protect us. If a wolf tries to snatch a piece of meat from its leader, it will remind him why he occupies that position in the pack; On the other hand, human beings entrust this type of situation to a justice system , the same one that we criticize negatively when we do not need it.

Trying to contrast this idea of ​​the limits of freedom, one can think that it does not include those issues mentioned above, since it does not accept in its definition any act that harms another living being or that crosses the walls of morality that each nation has raised for centuries. It is important to remember that freedom is not a concept that we share with the rest of the species of the planet, but it is our invention and, if we wish, we can assure that we are all absolutely free.

The individual freedom , on the other hand, must be protected by the State . No person can restrict the freedom of others; otherwise, the competent authorities must act to punish the responsible party.

Another analysis of freedom is linked to psychological or metaphysical questions. The essence of freedom, in a certain way, can never be affected since it exists within each living being; no one can prevent another from thinking or feeling certain things.