Chapter 16: Freedom Review

Chapter 16: Review

Jean-Jacques Rousseau- Photos.com/Jupiterimages

" We think of eachother as we think of literary characters . We characterize our family, friends, and associates  as we interpret what they do and say"-  ( Janero & Altshuler , The Art of Being Human: The Humanities as a technique for living, 2011, p.500)

     Freedom is a concept that has been struggled to grasp throughout history and humanities. Despite being straightforward to some, to others it's a foreign concept or one that varies in meaning depending on the person and their values. One belief on freed is determinism which denies that freedom of will exists and that there will always be factors that govern our choices. Both within our our past and present, determinism has been executed and shows off how their our limitations to what we percieve as freedom of will.One form of determinism is institutional. Institutional refers to how freedom of will is limited within society because of choices we choose. Jean- Jacques Rousseau is an example of determinist because of him being a major architect in the french revolution that was very radical on how he felt about repressive governments.  Character consistency is another concept that comes up within determinism and refers to how characters themselves lack free will, in literature and reality. This lack of free will is caused within characters when they are consistent because they becime more consistent and that only unpredictable charcters could be considered totally free. The quote above compares to people in reality to being like literary characters because of how we can characterize those in reality simply through actions.

Sigmund Freud by Max Halberstadt, c. 1921-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud

" I have no friends, I make my mind my friend. I have no enemy, I make my carelessness my enemy. I have no armor, I make my benevolence my armor"- Fourteenth-century Japanese armor

    Free will can be described through a variety of concepts. The quote above actually shows this by describing how somone can bend their will to make up different aspects of their life and make things in it whole through shear will. One of these concepts is a pessimist's view of free will. This view is similiar to determism where it questions whether the concept of will can be expressed as free and if it exists but this is further pushed to detemine whether or will in humans is neccessary positive.Arthur Scopenhauer , a german philosopher, questioned whether the human condition to make choices was always good and discussed situations where this issue could be questioned. Another way of looking at free will is in terms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis refers to examining one's mental state and uderstand why they do certain actions and choose choices that they do.It helps people come to a rational state and learn healthy ways of expressing free will despite the characteristics they might hold that holds them back. The concept itself was invented by Sigmund Freud to help with the those with mental health issues. This is usually assisted through psychptherapy to understand and teach patients of will and how they own free will within their lives.

Sketch of Soren Kierkegaard-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

 " I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor" - Henry David Thoreau

    Existentialism is a philosophy that focuses on how individuals express their existence and freedom . Basically it tries to show how in humans we come up with certain rational decisions or make up choices in a reality where it may not matter in the end or could be deemed as point. The quote above shares a similiar philosophy as existentialism and describes how man can elevate their way of living through conscious effort despite it seeming pointless. Two forms of existentialism is religious and secular. Religious existentialism is the existentialist approach to the christian belief. Soren Kierkegaard was an existentialist in this form that accepted christianity.This is not because of a religious revelation but because of free will and his own reasoning to why christianity was truth in his reality. Secular exitentialism rejects religion and god and takes a more confusing stance on the purpose and freedoms of humans. It reasons that no human has to really obliged to higher forces which brings up the question of what is the point of existence.

Conclusion

  In conclusion , freedom is something not neccessarily universally understood or easily obtained but can have a lot of interesting concepts to it. To some, freedom can be as simple as having amendments or being able to express opinions , to others freedom is more specific focusing on human right to will and figuring out the points of our existence as a whole is the broader schemes. Freedom is what can be expressed and shown through a variety of concepts.