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The human freedom and the human capability to reflect about the
circumstances of our existence are phenomenons that have puzzled
philosophers, anthropologists and other scientists alike, since we can think.
Albert Camus For Albert Camus, as for Plato, there are also two
different ways of interpreting human freedom: There
is the freedom that everybody has to chose between
options, to do/think/refuse/etc. one thing or another,
and then there is the ―Absurd freedom‖21, that is in
his view the only kind of true freedom. What does he
mean by that? By freedom, Camus obviously (again)
refers to the human capability of choosing between
options. But the word absurd has a surprising
meaning here: The absurd (or rather the absurdity of
life) results from the human need to find a meaning
in life and the universe's constant silence facing those
human questions
Jean Jacques
One finds this thought even more profoundly and
Rousseau
emphatically stated, where Rousseau argues that
entrance into the civil state results in the
transformation of the human being ―from a stupid,
limited animal into an intelligent being and a man.‖[6]
Although in both passages he still considers the
potential for abuse and corruption to be a significant
concern, the exit from the state of nature also
eventuates in the development of the human faculties
and the acquisition of moral liberty, ―which alone
makes man truly master of himself. For to be driven
by appetite alone is slavery, and obedience to the law
one has prescribed for oneself is liberty.‖
Theory that all events, including moral choices, are completely determined by
previously existing causes. Determinism is usually understood to preclude free
will because it entails that humans cannot act otherwise than they do. The
theory holds that the universe is utterly rational because complete knowledge
of any given situation assures that unerring knowledge of its future is also
possible.
Types of determinism according to Philosophy Terms (2016), are:
1. causal determinism (or physical determinism) which is normally
associated with two positions:
- nomological determinism – the claim that all events are
caused by previous events according to rigid laws, such that all
events are, in a sense, inevitable.
Making some choices feels like this. There are various reasons for and against
doing each of the alternative actions or courses of action one is considering,
and it seems and feels as if one could do any one of them. In considering the
reasons, mulling them over, one arrives at a view of which reasons are more
important, which ones have more weight. One decides which reasons to act on;
or one may decide to act on none of them but to seek instead a new alternative
since none previously considered was satisfactory.
It is causally undetermined (by prior factors) which of the acts we will decide to
do. It may be causally determined that certain reasons are reasons (in the one
direction or the other), but there is no prior causal determination of the precise
weight each reason will have in competition with others. Thus, we need not
hold that every possible reason is available to every person at every time or
historical period. Historians and anthropologists delineate how certain ideas
and considerations can be outside the purview of some societies, some of
whose reasons would not count as reasons for us. (Yet, there does remain the
question of whether an innovator couldn't have recognized as a reason
something outside the purview of others in his society.) Psychology,
sociobiology, and the various social sciences, on this view, will offer casual
explanations of why something is or is not a reason for a person (in a
situation). They will not always be able to explain why the reasons get the
precise weights they do. Compare the way art historians treat style; not every
style is equally available to every artist in every period, yet within a style
It is neither necessary nor appropriate, on this view, to say the person's action
is uncaused. As the person is deciding, mulling over reasons RA which are
reasons for doing act A and over RB which are reasons for doing act B, it is
undetermined which act he will do. In that very situation, he could do A and he
could do B. He decides, let us suppose, to do act A. It then will be true that he
was caused to do act A by (accepting) RA. However, had he decided to do act B,
it then would have been RB that caused him to do B. Whichever he decides
upon, A or B, there will be a cause of his doing it, namely RA or RB . His action
is not (causally) determined, for in that very situation he could have decided
differently; if the history of the world had been replayed up until that point, it
could have continued with a different action. With regard to his action the
person has what has been termed contra-causal freedom—we might better
term it contra-deterministic.
Norzick also suggests the Theory of Values in the act of giving weight:
Intrinsic value has traditionally been thought to lie at the heart of
ethics. Philosophers use a number of terms to refer to such value. The
intrinsic value of something is said to be the value that that thing has ―in
itself,‖ or ―for its own sake,‖ or ―as such,‖ or ―in its own right.‖
Example: Studying is a good act in itself
Instrumental value the function and measure of intrinsic that will lead
to.
Example: Studying is a good act in itself Studying will help you
understand the lessons well and it may you earn a high grade.
Originative value may be newly intrinsic values. Through this third
value, you may have all the three values including originative. His or her
actions can make a great change and different valuable consequences.
Example: Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was a college dropout. He
chose not to finish study and instead focused on developing computers
and such devices. The choice that Steve made ultimately led to the
invention of Mac computers, iPhones, and iPads.
Property
Property rights are key to freedom and responsibility. They define those things
that individuals should be free to use as they see fit (barring infringements of
other peoples' freedoms and property rights). They define those things whose
use the owner must be responsible for. Property in this sense includes goods,
services, money, land and labour - any entity that is owned. Property rights
include full title and partial rights of use. The uses to which individuals should
be free to put their property include non-use and exchange.
a) Non-use
The non-use of property may serve as valuable a function to the
individual and society as its use. For instance, when prices fall for a
certain good, below the level at which some owners of the good are willing
to exchange it, the withdrawal of some items of the good from the market
will serve to bring supply and demand back into balance. Property
owners should not expect to be subsidised for keeping their property out
of the market, but neither should they expect to be penalized. Policies
that penalize property-owners for keeping their property idle are an
attack on property rights and economically unsound.
b) Voluntary exchange
Voluntary exchange is the fundamental way by which unconnected
individuals cooperate to increase their mutual welfare. A voluntary
exchange occurs where each participant to the transaction values the
other participant's property more highly than the property they are
offering to exchange.
c) Involuntary exchange
If one or more participants to a transaction must be coerced to exchange
their property, the exchange is not voluntary and the transaction has not
resulted in a mutual increase in welfare. The government should
therefore avoid interfering in transactions, other than to provide the
institutional framework and to protect the participants from coercion or
fraud. By intervening to make participants do what they otherwise would
not have done voluntarily, the government destroys the mutual benefit
that is the product of a voluntary exchange.
d) Protection of property rights – the first duty of the state
The main responsibilities of a free state are to protect person, property
and nation from coercion and involuntary appropriation by others. Other
responsibilities, such as the protection of competition and provision of a
social safety net flow from these basic responsibilities.
e) Taxation is appropriation of property
Protection of individual property rights includes minimizing the
appropriations that the state must make to fund the services that it
provides. It is no good knowing that the state has provided such good
security that no one could steal your property, if the state deprives you of
the use of that property through such heavy taxation that you must
dispose of your property in order to pay the tax. All taxation is
Wealth
Accumulated property. Individual net wealth is the property that an individual
owns minus any debts that they owe. National wealth is the sum of the net
wealth of all citizens and organizations.
a) Money supply and wealth Money is not wealth. Money is a medium of
exchange and a yardstick for valuation. Monetary expansion (inflation)
does not increase wealth. In the short term, it transfers wealth from most
people and organizations to the beneficiaries of monetary expansion
(government, big corporations, and their clients). In the long-term, it
destroys wealth, through its inhibition and distortion of the market.
b) Mercantilism and protectionism If money is not wealth, neither does it
make us richer to try to bring as much money into the country and
prevent as much of it from leaving. We all benefit from each country's
comparative advantages through trade. We must buy other countries'
products in order for them to have the money to buy our products, and
vice versa. Barriers to trade impoverish us all.
c) Human wealth There are many things in human experience that
contribute to the quality of our existence, beyond those things that can
be bought and sold. Like all experience and human valuation, they are
Capital
Capital is that part of our wealth that is employed in the production of goods.
The definition of certain types of wealth, measured in monetary terms, as
capital is merely an accounting convention, for the purposes of economic
calculation. Capital has no inate properties. It is not a different type of thing to
other types of good or wealth. Something is capital simply by virtue of being
defined as capital.
a) The role of capital in the calculation of economic progress
Capital is depleted in production, whether as an input to the process, or
through wear-and-tear. If the value of the production output is not
sufficient to replace and repair the capital as it is used, we are
consuming our capital and reducing our wealth. If the value of the
production output is more than sufficient to replace and repair the
capital as it is used, the excess income can be spent, saved or invested.
Some of it will contribute to public expenditure through taxation. If the
market is competitive, a sufficient excess will result in a reduction in
costs to consumers. Whichever, we have increased our wealth.
b) Capital must have a monetary value
Capital that cannot, objectively and to a reasonable degree of accuracy,
be quantified in monetary terms is meaningless. The point of capital is to
assist in economic calculation.
c) Capital requires property rights
As the purpose of capital is for use in production of goods, the person
employing the capital must have the right to use it - must have property
rights in it. It is nonsensical to speak of investment in capital, if the
investment does not give the investor the necessary property rights in
that capital.
Scenario #1
A not-so-popular student has invited you to a sleepover at a birthday
party on Friday night. You have accepted the invitation and are
planning to attend. On Wednesday, you are invited to a boy-girl party
for the same Friday night by one of the most popular students in your
school, someone you have hoped to become friends with. After talking
with your friends, you realize most of them will attend the boy-girl
party. Your parents have told you it is your decision, but that you
should attend the party you responded to first. You really want to be a
part of the popular crowd. What do you do?
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Scenario #2
You are eating lunch at the canteen and you notice someone from one
of your classes sitting by themselves. While you like the person
enough, they are out of your peer group. You feel badly they are all
alone, but don’t want to venture too far outside of your comfort zone at
lunch. What do you do?
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Online Reference:
Roschitsch, Ulrich (2015), The concepts of human freedom and radical
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Rickless, Samuel (2020), Locke On Freedom (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy)
Retrieved from: plato.stanford.edu › entries › locke-freedom
Buhanan, Kurt (2016), Rousseau and the Nature of Human Freedom |
Humanities ...
Retrieved from: sites.uci.edu › humcoreblog › 2016/11/07 › rousseau-and-
the-nature-...
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2020), determinism |
Definition, Philosophers, & Facts | Britannica
Retrieved from: www.britannica.com › Philosophy & Religion › Philosophical
Issues
Philosophy Terms (2016), Determinism: Examples and Definition
Retrieved from: philosophyterms.com › determinism
The Information Philosopher, Robert Nozick
Retrieved from: informationphilosopher.com › solutions › philosophers ›
nozick
Freedom & Responsibility Party (2010), Philosophy
freeresp.org.uk › content › philosophy