Means by constitution or Fundamental law Guaranteed right or Freedom It can ensure that people are not enslaved, imprisoned or controlled by an autocratic regime, or that people can be liberated. Freedom in the sense of self-discipline. Kant uses the word freedom in this sense.
The incisive explanation of "freedom" is the behavior that can be carried out according to one's own will without external obstacles. according to lord acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton), there are more than 200 definitions of "freedom" by thinkers. So, Satori (Giovanni Sartori) said that "freedom is a chameleon like language". Freedom In a broad sense, animals and plants natural law All unconstrained behaviors within the scope. Freedom means the right to do anything harmless to others. [3] —— French Revolution Programmatic document《 Declaration of Human Rights 》Article 4（ Excerpts ）, 1789 In short, this Four freedoms Is free speech 、 Religious freedom 、 Freedom from want And freedom from fear. the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights It reaffirmed the spirit of these four freedoms: "Everyone enjoys freedom of speech and belief and is free from fear and want. In the second half of the 20th century, Isaiah Berlin He began to use the concept of "two kinds of freedom" to divide freedom:“ Negative freedom ”And "positive freedom". He believes that positive freedom refers to the freedom of people in the "active" sense, that is, the decisions and choices made by people as subjects are based on their own active will rather than any external force. When a person is independent or conscious, he is in a "positive" free state. This freedom is "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, which is the state of "freedom from coercion and interference". In order to resist the concept of freedom, many people absolutize the concept of freedom and believe that absolute freedom does not exist. Therefore, they deny the existence and significance of freedom. They proposed“ Kingdom of Freedom ”The philosophical definition of "freedom" refers to an absolute freedom. In fact, absolute freedom does not exist, but relative freedom exists. Freedom is restricted and conditional on the premise that it does not infringe upon the freedom of others. However, this restriction does not mean that the concept of freedom is meaningless. On the contrary, there is a wide world of freedom beyond the restriction, which needs protection. Autocrats, however, oppose individual freedom and these free worlds. Because individual freedom will inevitably collapse to the autocratic rule exercised by the dictator. Therefore, in autocratic countries, freedom is often not widely recognized, and its meaning is deliberately distorted.
In the second half of the 20th century, Isaiah Berlin (Isaiah Berlin) began to divide freedom with the concept of "two kinds of freedom":“ Negative freedom ”(negativity) and“ Positive freedom ”（positiveliberty）。 Negative freedom means not being interfered by others or being restrained artificially. According to this definition, x enjoys the freedom to do y when no one interferes with x doing y. For example, when no one prevents X from publishing his speech, he enjoys freedom of speech. However, if x is unable to do y because of lack of certain ability or being bound by the laws of nature, then x cannot be said to have no freedom to do y. For example, we can't fly in the air at will, but this does not mean that we don't have the freedom to fly in the air, because we just lack the relevant ability rather than being constrained artificially.
As for positive freedom, Berlin has put forward the following explanation: the positive meaning of the word freedom comes from individuals' desire to be their own masters. I hope my life and decision are decided by myself, not by any external force. I hope to become a tool of my own rather than being dominated by the will of others. I want to be a subject, not an object; I hope I am driven by my own reason and conscious purpose, rather than being influenced by external reasons. I want to be a person, but I don't want to be nothing; Become an actor - to make decisions, not be decided I hope that I can realize that I am a thoughtful, willful and dynamic existence, take responsibility for my choices, and explain these choices by putting forward my ideas and goals.
According to the above description, the focus of positive freedom is "being able to be your own master". When I can be my own master, I am not a tool of others, and I will not accept others' Volitional behavior Dominated by. At this time, my behavior is driven by my own reason and conscious purpose, rather than determined and driven by external nature or other people. In other words, if we can be our own masters, we will be free. "Freedom" in ancient Chinese means "because of oneself", that is, not because of external forces, but because of oneself [2] 。
In ancient times Latin In, the word "liberty" means to liberate from bondage. stay ancient Greek 、 Ancient Rome During this period, "freedom" was synonymous with "liberation". Liberty in English comes from Latin , appeared in the 14th century. Freedom, which was formed before the 12th century, also means to live freely and to be liberated. In the West, freedom in its original sense mainly means autonomy, self-reliance and freedom from coercion, which means Personal attachment The dissolution of and personal independence. stay Psychology On the one hand, freedom means doing things according to one's own will. It means that people can decide their own behavior according to their own will. Of course, this kind of decision is conditional, which is restricted by his own ability, information and external environment. But human consciousness can choose how to act according to various constraints. If this choice comes from the heart, it can be said to be free. If it is forced and interfered by the outside world, it is not free. This is what the Dharma says: "What you ask for, others will not interfere." The exact name of freedom is freedom consciousness, which is a basic human right. Under the consciousness of freedom, no matter what consequences the consciousness of freedom will bring, people will willingly bear it, which is human's choice and dignity. Whatever the purpose, interference with freedom consciousness is an evil act against human nature. From the social theory, freedom means that you can act according to your own will without infringing others. If the things that have nothing to do with others are people's own things, then people have the right to decide their own behavior. The principle of non infringement must be obeyed in the case of relationships with others. Otherwise, this behavior will inevitably be countered, at least in terms of ideological aversion and dissatisfaction. An act that does not infringe upon others is good and free, while an act that infringes upon others is evil and unfree. The normal society encourages good deeds, punishes evil deeds, and corrects people's thoughts through rewards and punishments, limits the occurrence of mutual violations, and protects people's freedom to do good deeds.
According to the law, freedom means not breaking the law. However, it is actually more complicated, because there are good laws and Evil law Good law is in line with the requirements of sociology and limits the behavior of infringing others. The evil law is to restrict people's behavior, and only the behavior according to its provisions is allowed. Therefore, where good law is practiced, the freedom of sociology is basically consistent with the freedom of law. Where the law is evil, the law is a tool for restricting freedom to do evil. From the political point of view, freedom means that people have the right to choose the rulers they agree with and not to choose the ones they disagree with. Like《 The Scripture of Ethics 》That said, the ruler is to“ Take the people's heart as the heart ”And manage the country in full accordance with the wishes of the people. If the ruler cannot do it, the people have the right to change and choose leaders who can truly "take the people's heart as their heart". Locke《 Government theory 》He proposed that freedom means not being bound and raped by others. modern democratic system The essence of is to protect people Political freedom , respect people's sense of freedom, safeguard people's freedom to do good, and stop the evil acts against others. Sartre said that people are born to suffer from freedom. Freedom is the freedom of choice, which in essence is not "freedom", because people can not escape the fate of choice. Human beings are social animals, so people will inevitably choose to understand and love people around them, which is human nature. However, each person is born differently, just like there are no two identical leaves. Moreover, the human mind is more complex and dark than the veins on the leaves. Therefore, it is doomed that people can never really understand each other. I am just me, and I am doomed not to understand others with my thinking. If two people really insist on understanding each other because of love or other reasons, the more I try to understand, the more I will find that the distance between two people is only getting farther and farther. Because the more we understand, the more we can understand how different the distance between us, the distance between our hearts, the distance between our thoughts, and the shape of our hearts are. Love will fade away, and the desire for understanding will become the desire for alienation. Therefore, people are doomed to be lonely. We long for a world of great harmony, but if the world really has only one thought, it will be a terrible and cold world, as shown in the human completion plan in EVA. From 1789 to now, all human beings have been fighting for freedom and freedom of choice. In such an era, people who have freedom have shouted "every man will be a king". But in modern times, we find that we have never been free to be free, from loneliness to helplessness, from one strange circle to another, where is the way out, or we simply cannot escape our destiny as human beings? I don't want freedom, who wants freedom!
