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About Me
- dsm
- Biostatistician, Biology and Philosophy Faculty, Lacrosse Addict
Posts
11 comments:
Liz Stern
What precisely is freedom? We spent over 2 hours Thursday trying to figure out what freedom really is, and I cannot imagine how many others have spent time asking this same question over and over. Lets begin with definitions; Wikipedia defines society as a population of humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive culture. More broadly, a society is an economic, social and industrial infrastructure, in which a varied multitude of people are a part of. Social norms are defined as the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit. Failure to stick to the rules can result in severe punishments, the most feared of which is exclusion from the group. While I am at it I am going to post how Wikipedia defines freedom. The philosophical definition as posted on Wikipedia of “Freedom” is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression. With these definitions in mind I truly belive that freedom is being able to chose ones own actions within the limits of society or social norms. One is restricted by their own beliefs, values, ideal, and relationships. One is also restricted by others beliefs, values, and ideals. I feel that the idea of freedom is a concept which is used in various contexts. For example, young adults refer to freedom a lot when they are discussing leaving their parents to have their own life. When I left, I left behind all the restrictions, limitations, and rules that my parents upheld. Actually I thought I was leaving those behind; instead I actually adopted the majority of them as my own because they are the same as what society expects of an adult. The few that society accepted and that I was able to take advantage of, actually were restricted by my responsibilities as a working student which in todays society is pretty normal. Another major example of the term usage is that our country, the United States, allows the citizens freedom through the military. This is referring to freedom from terrorists, freedom from national destruction, and furthermore freedom from national devistation. So we are told that in order to maintain in control of our own country we need to have military personel invade another country to find the source of our own problems. But with the idea of maintaining this “freedom” our country’s government still enforces an extremely large amount of rules and regulations that the citizens must abide by on a regular basis. These rules and regulations have been adopted by society and society as a whole is going to enforce the rules just as much as law enforcement officials. Society will tell you when you are right or wrong and it is upon the individual to make the decision to abide by the rules or deviate from the rules, however, deviation will lead to a difficult passage, pretty much taking away the little freedom you have. The restrictions of society allow the citizens who think they are free to remember that there will always be limits, punishments, fear, and restrictions to ones actions. All in all we are still free because we are allowed to make our own decisions and live a life that we are in control of, but within the limits of society.
I believe freedom is the choice to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. I don’t believe that you confuse consequences (good or bad) with freedom. Even though there are consequences to every action you still have the choice to engage in the action and face the consequences or not. There will always be societal influences that will help mold a lot of your choices, but I don’t believe that this takes away your overall freedom, unless you allow it to over-take you. You have to be raised by someone and you will inevitably have relationships with other people. There are times that anyone is coereced into doing something. That takes away from your natural thought and is therefore taking away from your freedom.
Peter Ngor
The answer to what is freedom to me is very difficult once to give a clear and direct answer. what always come to my mind when ask about freedom is a choice without limit to do what you wanted to do whenever you to do it without anybody telling you what to do or not to do. When we were discussing it in class i happen to be one of the people who seem to disagree with what really is the freedom definition. However when i really think about there is no such thing is called freedom, because as far as we live where there are other people, there will be no freedom. Because if i want to use my freedom totally i might be interfering with other people freedom and that mean my freedom just goes so far. So what we called freedom might be a disception of what really is freedom. Therefore the best answer to freedom is that,it is the opportunity to own your own destiny within the limit of reason morality in the society according the research that i did about it.
Jessica Meza
Freedom is an act that is not predetermined, free from cause except for one’s self. It is the choices people make based on an individual’s likes, dislikes, personality, goals, wants, needs, etc. I believe I am responsible for my own behaviors which have shaped what my life has been, is and will become. There are many reasons for me, as well as many others, to acknowledge the fact that we are in control of our own fate. Every person decides what they will do when they want to do it on a daily basis which is why everyday differs somewhat from the previous day and so on. On the other hand it is also why at times we feel like everyday is Groundhog Day, based on the similar activities humans participate in necessarily for survival or simply to pass the time and potentially have fun. Even though there are many influential factors in my life there is no one enforcing my diet, a career, marriage, children, sexual preference, education and many other important aspects in life. So just because speculations can be made regarding the future and interpretations about what could have happened in the past to cause extinction doesn’t mean someone is controlling us. I view it as living life one day at a time experiencing failures and successes in order to learn how to fulfill the world we perceive around us. Therefore, our ability to reason for ourselves is what has made us into unique individuals that differ greatly from one being to another.
Ryan Keene
Freedom is in my own definition the ability to make a choice and not have an external force coercing or guiding that choice. In my opinion, there is such a thing. As human beings we are faced with choices every day that will affect almost every aspect of our lives. There are a large group a people that believe that this cannot be true and that everything is pre-determined. These people are roughly the determinists, the fatalists. They believe that such things do not exist and that everything is decided for us. Now when you look at the way that they format their statements they do not discount the fact that ultimately there was a choice involved. For instance people do not have to believe that smoking causes cancer and that a cancer victim who happened to smoke has cancer from it. The media is the external circumstance that is having an influence on the perception of the opinions. Now to further extend this, these people did not have to believe this media, nor do they have to not believe it. When someone makes a choice on something they are exercising freedom. Everyone has this. Another factor is consequences. Some believe that if consequences are bad that a person will not do whatever it is. This to me is false. Yes negative consequences might deter someone from doing something, however this does not mean that they do not have the freedom to still do what it is. They have every right to break whatever rules and laws and boundaries. The fact that they do not does not mean that they do not have freedom. They made a choice to do whatever they decided to do which is exercising freedom. Even with religion there is a choice. Religious people claim that God is all knowing. This may be true, however God gave humans a choice. The answer might already be known to him, however if it is, then why would God have given us a choice in the first place? This is an oxymoron and proves to be a false statement. Freedom is an easy concept to grasp, however not an easy concept to enact. People do not want to exercise freedom in all of it's aspects because it would put them into a title of a rebel or outcast in society. Some have done this and have been ridiculed and even killed for their bravery to do what they want and feel is right to them. This is something that makes people scared and timid of freedom, and unfortunately these people will willingly give up freedom just to "fit in".
According to Merriam-Websters dictionary freedom is "the quality or state of being free", which then leads us to the question of what is free. I believe freedom is the ability to do what you what at the time that you want to do it, it is making your own decisions and being able to think for ourselves.
Some people say that we are not free cause we have rules, but the rules are in place for the safety of yourself and for the safety of others. You do have the right to break these laws and there are consequences, but if there weren't consequences then the whole world would be a mess, they would be no order at all, because no matter what people will think that their way of doing things is the correct way.
When you are doing what you want, when you want you are you probably aren't thinking of the consequences so I believe that you are truly free then.
S.Q.Hall
Nabilah Keys
FREEDOM
The truth of the matter is there isnt a real thing known as freedom. I strongly believe from day one your taught how to think, talk, and behave in public. One can make themselves feel better by saying "these are my thoughts, my decisions and choices" but please remember that your thoughts decisions and choices were reflected by culture, race, community, and family (only to name a few). How free are we when we are told what time to go to work, how long to work for, and what our compensation will be? Freedom is a figment of our imagination that we like to think is real. If there is freedom than why cant I solely do what I wanted to do with out being guided by the law, government, or any superior. Some of us believe because we walk around as we choose and others are locked away we assume we are free. All in all we can get a dictionary or use the internet to see what society says freedom is and thats what we base our thoughts around. Nobody is
free we just tend to follow life's guidlines
Freedom is another hard subject to define do to the fact that once again there are many different ideas. I consider freedom the ablitiy to make your own decisions and make your own way of living without the opinion of another. But in all reality we really do not have the freedom that we think we do. For example the government has implied that we need to follow certian laws and if we do not our so called freedom will be taken away. Although when I look at different countries, I then see that we may not have total freedom over our decisions, but defently more then most. We can choose where we want to live, work, who our signifigant other may be. We just have guide lins to keep us in check, because even though we don't have total freedom. We do have the ablitiy to think for ourselves. Our government does not tell us what we have to wear, how we have to live, who we are to marry. I believe total freedom is impossable unless you live on an island by yourself, but in the united states we do have more than could ever ask for!
Jessica Southland
Nicole Hahlen
Well Freedom is not just a simple explainable word, because it is more of an opinion. What's freedom to you may not be freedom to me, everybody has there own definition and explanation for what and why they believe what they do. I believe freedom is having the right to say what we wanna say to a certain extent while others might not believe that is freedom because we are limited to what were allowed to say. Freedom is not explainable therefore i can not accurately explain what the definition actually means. Freedom is the choice to do what you what when you want and how you want which if you think about it, that is nothing in this world everything has certain rules and regulations as to what, how , when or why we can or cannot do. So in some aspects i feel our life is completely revolved around freedom although the rules and regulations that we do have is to keep us safe and out of harms way not to limit our freedom.
Susan McCliment
Freedom is defined as “the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action...” [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freedom] Freedom is, quite simply, the ability for one to do as they will, without fear of repercussion. With that in mind, it is impossible for anyone to be truly free – no one exists in a vacuum. We are constantly constrained in our actions by consequence and personal responsibility. Since every action we take may have broad implications, how free can we be?
What we really mean when we discuss “freedom” is personal responsibility. When we understand and accept that our every action has consequences, we must further accept responsibility for those consequences, however large or small. By taking what we know to be the result of our action and accepting that there may be unforeseen, unintended results, we can decide for ourselves if we are to take the action. Only when we accept these consequences are we free, able to take action as we see fit and accept the result as the inevitable outcome of those actions. Even a citizen of the most oppressive regime imaginable is free to speak out against his government, knowing full well that the consequence of his action will be imprisonment or death. In accepting this and crying out against injustice, he is truly free.
ZABRINA
In society, there is a certain amount of freedom needed in order to be safe. In every extent we can do what we want, with consequences of course. However, with alternate possibilities and views such as determinism, it is basically dependent on your perception of what you believe freedom really is. I believe that I lean toward libertarianism and that humans have their own free will and make their own choices. When we make a decision, we are basically making a choice. Whether or not we actually are predetermined in choices is unknown and unable to prove so it is hard to truly believe. Yet, at some times I do believe that some cause and effects do have reasoning. Also, the determinism that I do not agree with as well is that we are not held responsible. That doesn’t make too much sense considering we are able to contemplate and make our own decisions.
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