"What Freedom is and Why It Matters in Life"

 I once jotted my thought down on the issue of freedom. Re-reading my own writing, somehow, helps me to better understand myself and own construction.

For your information, I wrote this almost 15 years ago.

My reflection follows a classroom discussion. After the discussion in class on Friday, October 5th, 2001, many ideas and feelings are still dancing in my head. I have been thinking about the concept of freedom quite seriously, albeit not for the first time.

After the discussion in class on Friday, October 5th, 2001, I have been thinking about the concept of freedom quite seriously.

I think we cannot avoid discussing this crucial concept should we wish to explore the notion of power relationships between teachers and students, though tedious and tiring it will be. Most beings have talked about it for centuries, and millions have died for it throughout the world history. Many more are to be fighting and die for it, voluntarily or involuntarily, so what is called ‘freedom’ is worth spending each year at least a few hours of deep thinking for any mankind.

We have come to be happy with the stance that human beings are endowed with genetic predispositions, which permit us not to be free.

It is undeniable that men are conditioned by Nature. We have to eat food, breath air, drink water, and move, etc. Socially, we are under many man-made constraints. We have to wear clothes, go to school, etc.

When a man says he is a free man, he means many things. In the past, lots of men were not free; they were slaves. They were probably not citizens of a free state.  It can also mean that he has retired from business or his wife has left him. I am a free man. Are you?

When I ride my bicycle along the path on a Sunday morning when Spring is in the air, let’s say from Belconnen to Dickson, I feel free; the blooming cherries along the way and birds are singing. I feel free when I look at my shadow on the on the lane and when the sun is warm and the wind is blowing gently against my face. Think about the time when you feel relaxed and free from worries or obligations.

But we have things to be done and miles to go:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep;

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep

Miles to go….

Robert Frost (1874-1963)’s poem tells us something about the ways we live our lives. We have engaged in activities because we have to have something and to be somebody; some are successful but some are not. For those who are less fortunate, they have to strive for their existence in this world.

Is man free?

In his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1972), Skinner argued that it is a great mistake to assume that a man processes free will. In fact, albeit in a subtle manner, most psychologists assume that men are not free after all. Some even regard we are nothing but machines.

In Emile, Rousseau proposed that a teacher will be happy if the student feels free, but if kept under the teacher’s subtle control.

“ Let [the child] believe that he is always in control, though it is always you [the teacher] who really controls. There is no subjugation so perfect as which keeps the appearance of freedom, for in what way one captures volition itself. The poor baby, knowing nothing, able to do nothing, having learned nothing, is he not at your mercy? Can you not arrange everything in the world which surrounds him? Can you not influence him as you wish? His work, his play, his pleasure, his pains, are not all these in your hands and without his knowing? Doubtless he ought to do only what he wants; but he ought to do only what you wants him to do; he ought not to take a step which you have not foreseen; he ought not to open his mouth without your knowing what he will say.”

The question is whether the teacher is benevolent. Will the student ever know? Does it matter? It is very rarely for power to be equally shared. Power relationships between teachers and students are almost always asymmetrical.

In Thailand, many years ago, I have learned from the news that the woman carrying her five-month old baby, deliberately and intentionally, stole items from a supermarket so that the society could put her and her baby in jail --- she did so in order to avoid starvation. She reasoned that she had no ways to go, and in jail, she added, there was food for her and her baby to eat. In that case, the biological drive is perhaps stronger than the social drive. Can you imagine the mother’s heart when she decided to steal in order to put herself and her baby into jail? In her mind in that situation, freedom may be nothing, and survival comes first. 

Two Concepts of Freedom

You are free to pick an apple from the tree if someone with a gun blocks your path.

Again in a different situation, you are not free to pick up an apple. This time because there is no apple for you to pick.

Immanuel Kant, German idealist philosopher (1724-1804), distinguished two concepts of freedom: Negative freedom and Positive freedom. Negative freedom occurs when there is no coercion, the interference from other people. You are not allowed to get that apple, or else. Positive freedom is when you are your own master, being in charge of the fulfillment of your own aspirations. You go and get that apple.

In terms of political history, Isaiah Berlin, 1909-1997, Russian-born British political philosopher and historian best known for his distinction between positive and negative liberty and for his view that values are plural and conflicting, was of the opinion that positive freedom has regularly been taken to mean that a man should be determined by his free, genuine self and not by his actual self, which, according to Berlin, is imperfect because of man’s innate shortcomings or the bad influence of society. Similarly, Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher and political theorist best known for his book Leviathan (1651), in which he argues that the only way to secure civil society is through universal submission to the absolute authority of a sovereign, believed human nature to be of selfish and cruel, so they needed to be governed.

Since men are often seen as being blind, ignorant, and corrupt, the ideal of positive freedom will usually imply coercion. Since 99.9999% of men have not been enlightened, Rousseau suggested they: ‘be forced to be free.’ Because we are not free from biological and social factors, the Authority set up by men has to protect us from ourselves and to help us to get what is good for us, rather than what we prefer.

By being enlightened I refer, at worst, to the notion of man being kind and friendly, and at best to the notion of Buddhism’s Nirvana, as stated in the Dhammapada verse 90:

“ The traveler has reached the end of the journey! In the freedom of the Infinite he is free from all sorrows, the fetters that bound him are thrown away and the fever of life is no more.”

Because men have to be forced to be free, a man like Henry David Thoreau (1845-1847), in order to avoid aversive stimuli imposed by the society, had to go living at Walden Pond for some years. Thoreau said we should be independent, not under controls of anyone, directly or indirectly, even under those of the best in the world. He wrote:

“ I am too high-born to be propertied,

To be secondary at control,

Or useful serving man and instrument

To any sovereign state throughout the world.”

According to John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian view of morality: Liberty consists in doing what men desire, and the greater happiness for the majority of the people, the better.

Freedom is not limited to the extent of what one can or cannot do it also lies in one’s desires, one’s states of mind and feelings, which is reflected in the literarure:

Voltaire (1694-1778), French philosopher and writer whose works epitomize the Age of Enlightenment, often attacking injustice and intolerance, put it like this: When I can do what I want to do, there is my liberty for me… but I can’t help wanting what I do want.

Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz (1646-1716), German philosopher and mathematician. He invented differential and integral calculus independently of Newton and proposed an optimist metaphysical theory that included the notion that we live in “the best of all possible worlds.”, in the same vein, announced: Liberty consists in power to do what one wants to do…. or in the power to want what can be got.

It seems to me that what is called freedom is of different levels of reality: it can take a man his whole life to study and attain.

Freedom is a matter of degree…because we are caged…

During the discussion that day, one of the students came up with the statement: Freedom is to be able to do what we want under certain rulers and regulations.  So there are some social constrains.

Freedom can be viewed from two dimensions: biological and societal. Of course, biologically, we are dependent, for we need to breath air and drink water etc…  but socially we have to something to talk about.

Where do our likings come from?

According to Bacon, “ If the human intellect hath once taken a liking to any doctrine, . . . it draws everything else into harmony with that doctrine, and to its support.” It looks like our likings arise from our perceptions of the world, and of course, they must be.

A father may say his daughter has always had a liking for reading.  Of course, her liking has been cultured.

My friend has developed a liking for gin. Yes, she has tried it and she likes it.

Sir P. Sidney wrote: He proceeded from looking to liking, and from liking to loving. See the consequences: Look, Like, and Love?

The blunt answer would be from the society, mostly. I would say at this stage of my perception.

We are conditioned by the society. We are products of the world; we are under certain constrains. 

Is freedom relative? Ania Lian believes that freedom is relative, meaning freedom is a matter of varying degrees, more or less? In SLA context, the main task for teachers is making sure in engaging students in authentic tasks so that they understand better the social constrains, and find ways to make senses of the world.

I think on that day, we have come to the point that:

Realizing the fact that constraints exist, the teachers should be able to design the learning environment in such away that enables the students to see more constrains than they have seen before. When the students perceive that something is wrong or is going to be problematic, they are becoming more aware of the constraints.  They have developed their awareness. When they are in the uncomfortable states in which they have to finds ways to overcome or reduce such states, learning can take place. Competent teachers should teach in such ways that students come up with more questions, not limited answers. We teachers need to design the support system that enables the students to see more constraints. In so seeing, hopefully, they will become more aware of the world, become more autonomous learners (higher level of liberty, perhaps), and hence become successful learners.

Does anyone have any opinion regarding this issue? Please feel free to share ideas of your free will…