The extent of a man’s, or a people’s, liberty to choose to live asthey desire must be weighed against the claims of many othervalues, of which equality, or justice, or happiness, or security, orpublic order are perhaps the most obvious examples.
This is an example of the struggle between liberty and order.
“The triumph of despotism is to force the slaves todeclare themselves free.’
The goal associated with despotism is to break the will of those it abuses.
Democracy may disarm a given oligarchy, a given privilegedindividual or set of individuals, but it can still crush individuals
Any type of government can become oppressive if those in power act upon their own interests and not for the people.
Provided the answer to ‘Who shall govern me?”is somebody or something which I can represent as ‘my own’,
Does this support the idea of freedom as property?
Paternalism is despotic,
Paternalism denies the humanity to those being oppressed by its practice.
find upon analysis that to possess these attributesentails being recognized as belonging to a particular group orclass by other persons in my society, and that this recognition ispart of the meaning of most of the terms that denote some of mymost personal and permanent characteristics.
This reminds me of labeling theory, which states that the labels people are given make them predisposed to fulfilling the characteristics attributed to said labels.
ouhavenotlistenedtoyourowninner reason,that,likeachild,asavage,anidiot,youarenotripeforself-directionorpermanentlyin-capableof ic,’
Denial of humanity
because they are in no condition toknow what is best for them;
Is this a denial of the humanity of those who are less educated?
In existing societies justice and equaliryare ideals which still call for some measure of coercion, becausethe premature lifting of social contrels might lead to the oppres~sion of the weaker and the stupider by the stronger or abler ormore energetic and unscrupulous.
Freedom requires coercion in order to protect weaker members of society from losing their rights to those who are stronger.
This is the positive doctrine of liberation by reason.
Rules no longer become limitations when people apply their reasoning to understand why the rule is needed. This application of reason turns constraints into true freedom.
no longer obtrude themselves as external entities forcedupon me which I must receive whether I want it or not, but assomething which I now freely will in the course of the naturalfunctioning of my own rational activity.
Is the author stating that understanding lifts obstacles to liberty?
the agent is able in the most literal sense to increasehis own freedom.
This demonstrates how people are willing to disregard the freedoms of others in order to possess greater power.
of ends in themselves,
This is a reference to Kantian ethics.
be a slave to nature? Or to my own ‘unbridled’ passions? Arethese not so many species of the identical genus ‘slave’~-somepolitical or legal, others moral or spiritual?
Is this a reference to the question of whether humans actually have free will?
individuatrightswasabsentfromthe legalconceptionsof theRomansandGreeks;thisseemstoholdequallyoftheJewish,Chinese,andallotherancientcivilizationsthathavesincecometolig
Why is individual rights such a new concept in terms of government?
individualistic, and much disputed, conception of man.
People look at their liberties in an individualistic light, and this causes them to rebel when someone tries to limit their actions. People often only think of their rights and not the rights of others.
Society will be crushed by the weight of ‘collective mediWhatever is rich and diversified will be crushed by the weight ofcustom,
Freedom of speech and of civil discourse must be maintained to promote free thought. Otherwise, people will only speak when they believe others will approve. and this will create a society bereft of any originality.
greater safeguards must be instituted to keep them in their places
Great political philosophers disagreed on the innate goodness of people, and this influenced their beliefs on the purpose government should serve to curtail the immoral wants of individuals.
Liberty is not the only goal of nien.
Does the author mean to imply that people are predisposed to deny the liberty of others; and that safeguards should be put in place to prevent this from occurring?
The Egyptianpeasant needs clothes or medicine before, and more than,personal liberty,
This reminds me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs because it proves how people require basic necessities before they can worry about more abstract needs.
education before they can under-stand, or make use of, an increase in their freedom.
People must have be granted the right to an education for them to be properly equipped to participate in civic life.
‘Free-dom for an Oxtord don’, others have been known to add, ‘is a verydifferent thing from freedom for an Egyptian peasant.
I believe this implies that the rich should have limits on what they can and cannot do in order to ensure that the rights of the poor are not usurped.
over-stepped, the individual will find himself in an area too narrowforeventhat minimum development of his natural faculties whichalone makes it possible topur sue, and eveg to conceive, the varicusends which men hold good or right or sacred.
Some freedoms must not be interfered with in order for people to have the opportunity to flourish in society.
without this, it was impossible to create the kind of associationthatthey shought desirable,le,
Limits on what people are and are not permitted to do is required to ensure social order.
Because they perceived that human purposes and activities denot automatically harmonize with one another,
Liberty is often undermined by people's own self-serving desires.
The criterion of oppression is the partthat I believe to be played by other human beings, directly orindirectly, with or without the intention of doing so, in frustratingmy wishes.
Oppression is when certain groups of people are denied equal opportunities by a system of power and by individuals. This directly denies people of their right to liberty by making it so they are unable to achieve the goals they set for themselves through no fault of their own.
1{ my poverty werea kind of disease, which prevented me from buying bread,
This reminds me of the argument about whether basic necessities such as food should be regarded as a human right.
Mere in-capacity to attain a goal is not lack of political freedom.?
Most people support equality of opportunity, but this is not the same for equality of results.
Coercion implies the deliberate inter-ference of other human beings within the area in which I couldotherwise act.
Coercion is when people are impeded from acting on their free will.
To coerce a man is to deprive him of freedom
This reminds me of the concept of liberty versus order I learned while taking AP Government. While everyone wishes to have ultimate liberty to do what they please, they consent to being coerced into obedience for the sake of maintaining order in society.
power ofideas,
Ideas have the power to spur political discourse as well as incite revolution if enough like-minded individuals come together against a common enemy.
grow too violent
Is this a reference to violent revolutions such as the French Revolution and the October Revolution?
idle fancy.
Why might some people find a utopian society impossible to achieve?
administration ofthings’,
Does Saint-Simon mean here that people are incapable of operating a fair government?
showcases undervaluedfreedoms and instigates more possibilities for free action
Inequality can encourage the development of new definitions of freedom.
freedomtakesshapebefore,through,andinoppositiontothoseformationsofpower.”
Differing definitions of freedom is not necessarily a negative ideal since people adapt their definitions of freedom to counteract oppression.
American Dream
The American Dream was never an attainable ideal for certain groups of people.
Foot-draggingandstrategicincompet
Governmental institutions uncomfortable with change supported by new definitions of freedom can use their establishments to impede freedom.
practices of freedom often do not emanate from asingle cradition or with loyalty to a set of cohesive arguments.
Freedom cannot be defined in a way that all people will resonate with.
reedomcanbepracticedinexploitativewayswhilestillbeing“freedom.
People base their definitions of freedom by what will most benefit them. The rights of others, mainly marginalized groups, are not considered.
worldmaking devastates the worlds of indigenous andenslaved people and bars all women from its practice.
The definitions of freedom prevalent at the founding of the United States served to deny the rights of many inhabitants in America.
freedom and violence are antagonistic,
This directly differs from the poem shown on the first page of the excerpt.
“wemayleaveoutofconsiderationthosebackwardstatesof.societywheretheraceitselfmaybeconsideredasinitsnonage. . .despotismisalegitimatemodeofgovernmentindealingwithbarbarians.
The differing statements shown in this quote and the one above demonstrate how people view freedom based on their placement in society. People subscribe to the definition of freedom that best serves their interests.
universally shared one,
People define freedom in different ways, and this can unfortunately lead to people unjustly ruling over others when freedom is expressed in a way that serves to restrict power.
disaffection
Any form of dissatisfaction, even ones that at first seen trivial, can still lead to the expression of freedom.
disturbing and nonsensical.
Freedom expressed in unconventional ways still possesses merit.
disorderly,offensive, and obscene.
People who fight for their freedom are undermined by those in power who denote their rebellion with words claiming negative connotations.
hierarchiesofpowerand desert.
People rely on established hierarchies for comfort and feel a sense of unease or disgust when these hierarchies are undermined.
xperimentedwithfreedo
When marginalized groups are denied true freedom, they can proclaim their freedom by refusing to adhere to the established social norms of the group that is oppressing them.
violent and comanizing expectation that denies the lived experience of ao Soles)and grants worthiness only to those who demonstrate virtuous victimizationfor others’ sentimentalized salvati
This line reminds me greatly of the book The Handmaid's Tale because it depicts a theocracy that serves to deny the rights of women and those who dissent from the established religious doctrine.
Prejudicialvalues,
When the prejudices underlying unfair treatment are examined, they can then be counteracted.
land and all itsustains.
The freedom of people to view the land as their property has encouraged individuals to destroy the environment and hoard resources from others who need them.
ormofviolence
When people see their freedom as more valuable than the freedom of others, violence can ensue.
economicallyun-equal
Currently, freedom is viewed by some as the freedom to succeed or fail in a world full of inequalities that restrict opportunity.
free from recognizing one’s complicity in making othersvulnerable.
This view of freedom promotes ignorance as well as entitlement since it encourages people to disregard the advice of health professionals in favor of temporary personal comfort.
refusing access to and practicing violence upon
This was once viewed as acceptable because people defined their freedoms as the right to be free from individuals they viewed as unsightly.
freedom’s virtue,
Freedom loses its value when it is used to support the dominion of some people over others.
social inequality.
People have been conditioned to believe that inequality is essential to true freedom.
imperialism or capitalism
Values of freedom have enabled the practices of imperialism to take over and subjugate the freedom of others.
freedomofthemaster.
Early definitions of freedom were self-serving and were designed to deny the rights of individuals the colonists deemed as lesser than.
power to subjugate.
For many people, freedom is viewed as the entitlement to unjustly rule over others and abuse them.
torture, waterboarding, echoed the water cure.
This demonstrates to me how rampant fear or a lack of knowledge regarding certain groups of people can lead to terrible abuse.
taste of liberty,
I believe this line directly reflects how the American invaders believe that their actions serve to "free" their captives.
expressionofthem.
This reminds me of a book I read, titled The Poisonwood Bible that criticizes colonialism. In the book, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are abused by their Western invaders due to the belief that the existence of the Congolese people is somehow inferior to Western society. This subjects the Congolese to horrible abuse based on the assumption that their way of existence is incongruous with Western values.