Freedom or Liberty?

How do you get one or the other or both?

Hi! Dennis Rees here, thanks for Reading. The picture is my Dad, Harold L. Rees 1926-2001. He fought in WWII and the Korean War for our Freedom and Liberty. Because he was a ‘radiation exposed veteran’ it ultimately cost him his life.

Freedom? Liberty? Which would you rather have? For some in history this has been a choice. For others the choice has been how much of one or the other can you have? Since a tradeoff exists – the terms cannot mean the same thing.

This Freedom / Liberty construct is treated differently by many, many, scholars. Aristotle, Socrates, Hobbes, Mill, Locke, and others tend to conflate the terms and use them interchangeably while all the while hinting at a difference. I believe this is incorrect in most areas of human activity. I generally agree with Aristotle, freedom is that action which you take as a ‘rational, self-directed’ person without outside interference. Liberty is that action which others allow you to take or not, while under their dominion.

Liberty is not the same as Freedom. Although they do coincide at some point in their intersecting domains. We must differentiate between freedom of the mind and Freedom of action. Freedom of action’s opposite is Slavery or Bondage.

I built a chart (See Below) to try to clarify the Liberty/Freedom question in my own mind. As you can see, Freedom is the upper part of the chart area. Slavery and bondage the lower half of the chart. Freedom is a continuum from absolutely free to absolutely NOT free. Everyone knows that actions of people can be good or bad, thus the vice to virtue concept. Of course, people may be good or evil no matter if they are free or slave.

Liberty on the other hand, is something granted to you conditionally, through an agent with some kind of dominion over you. Governments grant liberty in exchange for adherence to laws, civilizations grant liberty through societal norms, certainly, God does and has granted all believers a high degree of liberty conditioned on your adherence to His commandments. All agencies granting liberty condition it on adherence to specific conditions. Liberty only lives in one quadrant of the Freedom domain.  God, grants liberty through your belief in him. In Psalms 119:45 David tells us, “And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.” It is very similar when Governments grant liberties. These are granted subject to your adherence to the laws of the jurisdiction wherein you reside.

The intersection of Freedom and Liberty is that point when you and fellow citizens enjoy the liberty fostered by your most Free and selfless virtuous acts in harmony with the conditions of liberty. Jerimiah 34:17 the Lord tells us “You have not obeyed me in proclaiming Liberty for everyone to his brother, and everyone to his neighbor.” When this proclamation is finally made, Freedom and Liberty will be one in the same. Patrick Henry, in his famous speech March 23, 1775, witnessed by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, believing himself to already be free under natures law and God’s law, was not asking for Freedom when he said, “Give me Liberty or give me death.”

Kennedy, Geoff. “Cicero, Roman Republicanism and the Contested Meaning of Libertas.” Political Studies 62, no. 3 (October 2014): 488–501. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12037.

Noolander, Jim. “The Difference Between Liberty and Freedom.” Paper presented at the Constitution Party Convention Meeting, Denver, Colorado, September 28, 2013.

RosentEial-Pubúl, Alexander. 2016. “Reflections on Ancient and Modern Freedom.” Modern Age 58 (1): 35–45.

Vincent, Nicholas. trans.Magna Carta Translation | National Archives.

Walsh, Moira M. “Aristotle’s Conception of Freedom.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 35, no. 4 (Oct 01, 1997): 495