Internet: Knowledge and Community

at The Evergreen State College

Freedom

From Internet: Knowledge and Community

Jump to: navigation, search

Freedom and reason

The simplest conception of freedom is the uninhibited pursuit of desire. I am free, that is to say, if I can get what I want without external hindrance. The attractiveness of the simple conception of freedom derives in part from the fact that unfreedom can take the form of external restrictions on doing what we want. Imprisonment is an obbious example: I want to leave and I can't. This seems a paradigmatic case of not being free. At the same time to use this as the basis for a general claim that freedom simply consists in being able to get what we desire seems to conflict with other cases.(The Internet:// Graham P.95)