Freedom

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Freedom, for people, means the state of being free; that is, not owned or controlled by anyone else. The best way to describe it is as the opposite of "slavery".

This does not always mean people acting as they want. Because there are many things that may prevent people from doing that, freedom is a very political, as well as philosophical, idea. Different philosophers have come up with different ways of defining "freedom". For some, it means when a person's desires are able to be fulfilled.

Today, freedom is felt to be something that all human beings have from birth, and a natural right. This means that one is free by the fact that he is a human being. As humans, everyone has dignity that must be respected.

Some of the main types of human freedom are: freedom to life, freedom of association, freedom of belief, freedom to express oneself, freedom to choose one's state in life. However, the civil constitutions of each country have different definitions of the freedoms allowed to the citizens. It has been argued that any law limits freedom, since it sets limits on what people may do.

Freedom of man can be divided into two, namely: "freedom from", and "freedom for". "Freedom from", means freedom from anything contrary to natural law (do good and avoid evil), this puts a kind of restriction to the individual expression of human freedom. "Freedom for", enables man to express his liberty, having the common good of others and the society at heart.