The incisive explanation of "freedom" is: an act that can be carried out according to one's own will without external obstacles. According to Lord acton's statistics, thinkers have more than 200 definitions of "freedom". Therefore, Satolli said that "freedom is a chameleon-like language". Freedom in a broad sense refers to all unconstrained behaviors of animals and plants within the scope of natural laws.
Freedom has many meanings:
1. It means the rights or freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution or the fundamental law, which can ensure that people are not enslaved, imprisoned or controlled by authoritarian regimes, or that people can be liberated.
2. Freedom in any sense. Say whatever you want and do whatever you want. Let it go.
3. Freedom in the sense of doing things according to law is the understanding and transformation of inevitability.
4. Freedom in the sense of self-discipline. Kant used the word freedom in this sense.
In the programmatic document of the French Revolution, the Declaration of Human Rights, freedom is defined as:
"Freedom means the right to do anything harmless to others."-Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1789.
Freedom is the core concept of political philosophy. Freedom is also a social concept. Freedom is the right of social people. The opposite of freedom is slavery.
In World War II, American President Roosevelt put forward the famous "Four Freedoms":
1. Freedom of speech
2. Freedom of belief
3. Freedom from want
4. Freedom from fear
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights reaffirmed the spirit of these four freedoms.
In the second half of the 20th century, isaiah berlin began to divide freedom with the concept of "two kinds of freedom": "negative freedom" and "positive freedom". In his view, positive freedom refers to people's freedom in the sense of "initiative", that is, people's decisions and choices as subjects are based on their own initiative rather than any external force. When a person is autonomous or conscious, he is in a "positive" state of freedom. This freedom is "the freedom to do". Negative freedom refers to freedom in the sense of "passivity". That is, people are not forced by others in their will and not interfered by others in their behavior, that is, "not forced and interfered."
In order to resist the concept of freedom, many people think that absolute freedom does not exist, so they deny the existence and significance of freedom. They put forward the philosophical definition of "the kingdom of freedom", which refers to an absolute freedom. In fact, absolute freedom does not exist, but relative freedom does exist. Freedom has limits and conditions, on the premise of not infringing on the freedom of others. However, this restriction does not mean that the concept of freedom is meaningless. On the contrary, there is a vast free world outside the restrictions, which is exactly what needs to be protected.
On the other hand, absolutists oppose individual freedom and these free worlds. Because individual freedom will inevitably collapse to the autocratic rule practiced by despots. Therefore, in authoritarian countries, freedom is often not widely recognized and its meaning is deliberately distorted.
Freedom is relative, not absolute. Freedom should be based on the premise of not hurting others, destroying or negatively affecting society, and not hurting the country and the nation.
In the second half of the 20th century, Isaiah Heberlin began to divide freedom with the concept of "two kinds of freedom": "negative freedom" and "positive freedom".
Negativeliberty means not being interfered by others and not being artificially bound. According to this definition, X enjoys the freedom to be Y when no one interferes with X's doing Y. For example, when no one stops X from making his speech, he enjoys the freedom of speech. However, if X can't be Y because it lacks certain abilities or is bound by natural laws, then X can't be said to be free to be Y. For example, we can't fly in the air at will, but this doesn't mean that we don't have the freedom to fly in the air, because we just lack relevant abilities rather than being artificially bound.
For positiveliberty, Berlin put forward this explanation: the positive meaning of the word freedom comes from the individual's desire to be his own master. I hope my life and decisions depend on myself, not any external force. I want to be my own tool, not dominated by others' will. I hope I am the subject, not the object; I hope I am driven by my own rational and conscious purpose, not influenced by external reasons. I want to be a character, but I don't want to be nothing; Be an actor-make decisions, not be decided. ... I want to realize that I am a thinking, will and energetic being, responsible for my own choices and able to explain these choices by putting forward my own ideas and goals.
According to the above explanation, the focus of positive freedom lies in "being able to be your own master." When I can be my own master, I am not a tool of others, and I am not subject to the will and behavior of others. At this time, my behavior is driven by my own rational and conscious purpose, not by external nature or others. In other words, if we can be our own masters, we will be free.
Harvard Business School's book Management and Enterprise Future mentions that freedom is the root of human wisdom.
There is such a passage in the book:
"In the era of knowledge economy, wealth is only a by-product of countless personal activities in a society where free values prevail. In a society where personal freedom is guaranteed to the greatest extent, people's wisdom is unprecedentedly active, innovative things will be constantly put forward, and wealth as a by-product will gush out like a volcanic eruption. Management has no such function. Management can gather existing wisdom and strength, which will create temporary prosperity, but it will exhaust the source of wisdom, pave the way for the collapse of prosperity and lead to death without exception. "
It is a common fault for other cultures to repeatedly imitate western culture that they only pay attention to the flowers of technology and wealth, but ignore the free soil on which it depends, and even despise and hate freedom.
What is freedom?
From Arthur Schopenhauer's Two Basic Problems of Ethics.
This is a negative concept if we study it carefully. Through this concept, all we think of is to remove all obstacles; On the contrary, when all these obstacles show strength, they must be positive. Corresponding to the possible nature of all these obstacles, the concept of freedom can be divided into three completely different types: natural freedom, intellectual freedom and moral freedom.
French definition
"The general meaning of freedom can be defined as a state of man, that is, his actions are not restricted except his own will and nature."
Kant believes that the average person's understanding of freedom is actually very chaotic, reckless and self-righteous. Kant put freedom, God and immortality in the range of peace and wonder, not the freedom of the phenomenal world, but the freedom of the ontological world, which is beyond the scope of pure reason. There are only three things in ontology, namely "God, immortality and freedom". Freedom is something in the ontological world, so it is beyond the exploration and understanding of human pure reason. If even the great philosopher Kant sees freedom so profoundly and transcends it, I don't know how much people know about it today.
There is a Statue of Liberty in new york, which is an enlarged version of a little Statue of Liberty in France. Then it was sent from France to the United States and erected in a small building in the port of new york.
Guide people freely.
Island. The idea of the Statue of Liberty was once praised by art, and a great French artist named Delacroix once painted a picture, describing that during the French Revolution, a goddess was advancing and leading the whole revolutionary movement. These soldiers are not afraid or retreat even if they are bleeding, sacrificing, being injured or dying for freedom. The Statue of Liberty rushed forward, taking the whole mankind to a freer place. At that time, there was a movement called "free thinkers" in France. At that time, these free thinkers discussed freedom from the standpoint of anti-faith and anti-religion. So when Christians talk about freedom, on the one hand, they should respect freedom, on the other hand, they should really understand what freedom is in the Bible. On the other hand, we should be serious and not commit crimes in the name of freedom. Patrick Henry once said a very important sentence: "Freedom! Freedom! Give me liberty or give me death! " If there is no freedom, I would rather die, but madame roland said, "Freedom! Freedom! How many crimes have you committed in your name? "
Related famous sentences
Morality is the defender of freedom. -Schmitz's famous saying?
Give me liberty or give me death. -Patrick Henry's famous saying
Without freedom of thought, academic innovation is impossible. -Zhou Haizhong's famous saying?
Once freedom takes root, it will grow as fast as a plant. -Washington's famous saying
Including ceremonies, attracted many families; Freedom of thought and inclusiveness. -Cai Yuanpei's famous saying
Freedom is the right to act at will within the scope permitted by law. -Montesquieu famous saying?
Real leisure is the freedom to do whatever you want, not idleness and boredom. -Bernard Shaw's famous saying
Anyone who gives up freedom richer than wealth for fear of poverty will have to be a slave forever. -Cicero's famous saying
Personal freedom is freedom that does not infringe on the freedom of others. -mill's famous saying
Freedom means responsibility, which is why most people are afraid of freedom. -Bernard Shaw's famous saying
Poverty is the lack of freedom to live a valuable life. -Altia Sen's famous words
Knowing how to get freedom is nothing, but how to use freedom is the arduous task. Agid's famous saying