Freedom

There is a certain ambiguity to the word ‘freedom’. Some people say that to be free is to be independent—but we humans are clearly dependent on so many things. Some others think that freedom is the power to do whatever one likes—but this rather superficial definition will not resist serious scrutiny. We could rightly say that to be free is to have fulfilled all the potentialities of our nature—but this is a future freedom. In the present, freedom has to do with our personal choices, and the extent of our freedom depends on the quality of those choices.