?Man Was Born Free, And Every Where He Is In Chains.? Essay, Research Paper
?Man was born free, and every where he is in chains.?
Socrates-
To Socrates, the unexamined life is not free. In the society he knew,
justice was overall important, and to him it was as well. The problem was
that his beliefs conflicted with the conduct of law in his community, so he
would have replied to this quote by saying that a person needs explore
themselves or else they just build bars around their lives. In order to
explore ones? life, questions need to be asked and beliefs need to be
challenged, but the law of his time prohibited such acts. The laws were
needed to maintain order and they were for the to prevent injust acts from
happening, but at the same time prohibited people to be free. A quote from
the Apology after Socrates was convicted, stated, ?Now I shall depart,
convicted by you and sentenced to death, while they go convicted by truth
of villainess injustice(18).? This statement would seem to say that a
person is born free under the laws of justice, but already in chains by those
same laws because they, the free born, cannot examine themselves to find
out who they are.
Aristotle-
?There is no less difference between rule over a free person and rule
over slaves, than between what is by nature free and what is by nature
slavish(186).? Any rule or authority puts chains on the people whether it is
for order or punishment. Aristotle says, ?…man is by nature a political
animal(140).? People cannot live outside of a society in the view of
Aristotle, they are social by human nature. The fact that there must be rule
and politics to distinguish between the good for all and the good for each
individual so that equality can be fulfilled, tells us that he believe that
freedom is existent because of politics and yet taken away by politics to
ensure equality for all. He says this in his book, The Politics, ?That the
same way of life must necessarily be the best both for each human being
individually and for cities and human beings in common…(187)? If we all
agreed equally then we could all be free.
Augustine-
In the thoughts of Augustine, there cannot be justice in a world of
coercion, and those that live in the city that cane built are in a struggle for
power and very selfish. In this Earthly City of Cane where the evil are, no
one can be free anymore unless they repent because there is coercion and
it is impossible to have justice. Only those who repent can go to the
Heavenly City of God. The only true person would not be interested in
politics and a person must be content with the presents of others for there
to be no coercion. Augustine said, ?Good man, although he is a slave, is
fee; but the bad man is a slave…(201)? The bad person is a slave, of there
own doing and therefor in the struggle for power and selfishness, that they
think can bring them freedom, is leading them farther away from freedom.
A good person is free, under the rule of God. Every one is born with the
same freedom, yet it is how the person tries to maintain that freedom, that
tells which people will put themselves into chains. This is the response to
Rousseau?s quote, from Augustine.
St. Thomas-
He would respond by saying that participation in politics is good for
the reason of ordering human relations by application of God?s external
law, freedom would be inevitable if people could have such order. Like
Aristotle, St. Thomas also agrees that humans are by nature, social beings,
and that participation leads to moral contribution. When Adam ate the
apple in the very beginning it was done out of passion and, in order to be
free people must despite their passion and live out of reason and persue
allocation with others in a cooperative manner. Aquines would probabley
not agree that man is born fr
are either free nad participate in politics to cooperate or the are in chains
and they act out of passion.
Mchiavelli-
He would say that to have power is to be free. Machiavellli is a realist
and believes in the peruit of self-interst. He would probabley talk about
people being all equal anf free in the beginning with all the same chance to
gain power, but how they can acheive that power and if they can then they
can be free. The struggle for power is perhaps the chains, but those who
are not in power are the people who can only dream about freedom and
those people must fear the ruler. The ruler is elite above the public. The
public can create a government where people can realize a form of liberty,
but the ruler focuses his attention on matters of the stae authority rather
than on the freedom of the peolpe, so they can feel free, but they are not in
controle of the oppression of the ruler.
Hobbes-
Hobbes believed that the state of nature is dreadful. With out
controle life for people would be a constant seeking of power, monopoly,
and the only certainty would be death. The fear is the chains on the people
and it also drive them to submit to common conditions to protect them so
they can be free from one another. ?And so of all living creatures, whilst
they are imprisoned, or restrained, with walls, or chains; and of the water
whilst it is kept in by banks, or vessels, that other wise would spread itself
into a larger space, we use to say, they are not at liberty to move in such a
manner, as without those external impediments they would(338).? No one
has liberty because that would destroy and the protection as well. In
Hobbes? veiws, the State of Nature of people are the chains, so no one can
be free.
Locke-
?Natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior poweron
Earth, and not be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have
the law of nature for ruler(359).? This is how John Locke feels about
freedom, and most people could live in a world like this, but it is those who
do not use their reason that there have to be laws. The state of war is
when the few people choose not to use their reason and dirupt the society,
these people need control and punishment, so some freedoms are taken
away from everyone. ?A liberty for everyone to do what he lists, to live as
he pleases, and not to be tied by any laws; but freedom of men under
government, is, to have a standing rule to live by, common to everyone of
that society(359).? This is why there is not freedom for the people even
though in a state of nature to Locke, people have reason if they chose to
use it and peolpe are good.
Hobbes-
The very world wether in democratic state of governmnt, socialism
or totalitarian, all of it is all an illusion to obscure the true nature of
humans. The true nature of humans is yet to come, where all conflict will
end, as will history. Until this time all people are not born free. As Marx
says, ?That culture, the loss of which means he laments, is, for enourmous
majority a mere training to act as machines(593).? all of the phillosiphies
that try to explain the nature of humans are all a part of the supression of
the true human nature. All things are controlled by the economic
controling class, they use their power to expoit the other classesunder the
large super structure. Inevatibly, those who are trying to hold on to the
power and suppress the other classes will face revolution, that they
brought on themselve, of the working class. After the revolution, then
there will be salvation and the people will be free from the illusional world
around them that they may feel is real already, but it is not.
3cb
(#): Porter, Jene M., ed. Classis in Political Philosiphy. Canada: Prentice-Hall, 1997