About 1000 B.C., the Indian Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita set forth a dual idea of freedom defined in two senses.Both meanings are contained in the word swaraj. Philosophers conceived of swaraj in a strict political sense of rule over one’s own land. Swaraj was also understood in a spiritual or psychological sense of rule over one’s soul or self. This second meaning should be taken to understand that through self-knowledge, one acquires freedom from ignorance, illusion, and fear. Therefore, one was unfree if obsessed with money or possessions. The Bhagavad Gita says that the truly free person acts without craving. The highest level of consciousness is learning that our being is at one with all beings, and spiritual liberation comes from unity with all beings. Understanding of unity brings liberation from alienation, divisiveness, and fear. The freest person sees all beings in himself, and himself in all beings.
In ancient Greece, the liberal/external idea of freedom is the key to what Pericles and most Greeks thought of freedom. In the writings of Greek historian Thucydides about the Peloponnesian war, the funeral oration of Pericles expounds the Athenian democracy of the 5th century B.C. In contrast to oppressive states of Sparta, Athenians were free and tolerant in their public and private lives. Pericles called the city “the apostle of freedom and an education to all of Greece.” Athens was the first democratic system at all and could claim a direct democracy whose citizens had a high level of involvement in public affairs.
The third view of freedom was the Christian view. This form of freedom depended on knowledge of a moral or spiritual truth, which was a religious truth. This truth led to freedom from sin, ignorance, and fear.
The problem John Stuart Mill sought to remedy was the attempt by society to force individuals to conform to a code of conduct that might be irrational. His solution was to preserve and enlarge the realm of individual freedom. Mill’s goal is to determine the limit beyond which the interference of collective opinion with individual independence cannot be legitimate. In his view, an individual’s freedom can be restricted only for the sake of preventing injury to another. Among the freedoms that Mill wanted to ensure were freedom of thought, opinion, conscience, and eccentric preferences.
^^ source credit: Dennis Dalton, political philosopher, Colombia University
In ancient Greece, the liberal/external idea of freedom is the key to what Pericles and most Greeks thought of freedom. In the writings of Greek historian Thucydides about the Peloponnesian war, the funeral oration of Pericles expounds the Athenian democracy of the 5th century B.C. In contrast to oppressive states of Sparta, Athenians were free and tolerant in their public and private lives. Pericles called the city “the apostle of freedom and an education to all of Greece.” Athens was the first democratic system at all and could claim a direct democracy whose citizens had a high level of involvement in public affairs.
The third view of freedom was the Christian view. This form of freedom depended on knowledge of a moral or spiritual truth, which was a religious truth. This truth led to freedom from sin, ignorance, and fear.
The problem John Stuart Mill sought to remedy was the attempt by society to force individuals to conform to a code of conduct that might be irrational. His solution was to preserve and enlarge the realm of individual freedom. Mill’s goal is to determine the limit beyond which the interference of collective opinion with individual independence cannot be legitimate. In his view, an individual’s freedom can be restricted only for the sake of preventing injury to another. Among the freedoms that Mill wanted to ensure were freedom of thought, opinion, conscience, and eccentric preferences.
^^ source credit: Dennis Dalton, political philosopher, Colombia University
