ABSTRACT
Many ideas that have shaped our thoughts (and continue to influence our thinking today), across the world, originated in Athens and in other locations in Greece in the fifth century B.C.
I thought I should take up in this article one such theme - freedom. I take the idea in its broadest form, encompassing the substantive opportunities as well as the procedural arrangements that go with freedom. Freedom in this broad sense includes, on one side, political liberties, civil rights, economic and social opportunities, and on the other, the removal of the basic unfreedoms of hunger, illiteracy, untreated illness, and other absence of social guarantees. Freedom is indeed a very diverse and many-sided concept, and as William Cowper, the English poet, noted:
Lines of Division
Oddly enough, freedom is not only among the most valued ideas in the world, it is also among the most feared of human conditions. With freedom comes both opportunity and responsibility, and while the former may be prized, the latter can be a cause for anxiety and concern. This conflict has engaged many distinguished psychologists. I would nevertheless venture to suggest that in the purely individual context, it is not typically the case that people fear freedom in their own lives. Those who are afraid of freedom tend mostly to be afraid of freedom of others - the discontented lower classes, the aggrieved rural masses, the disgruntled women grumbling about their assigned "place," the rebellious youth refusing to be compliant and obedient, and the determined dissidents protesting about the existing order. It is other
people’s freedom that have worried many commentators writing against freedom, who have not, however, offered to give up their own freedom. This applies as much to authoritarian rulers (including military dictators) as to the intellectual commentators (including many leaders of thought) who have championed - what they describe as - "order, discipline and necessary sacrifice" over "freedom, effrontery and license."
