The Problem of Freedom

“And what sort of chains of dependence could exist among men who possess nothing? I am chased from
one tree, I am free to go to the next; if I am tormented in one place, who will prevent my moving
somewhere else? Is there a man who is so much stronger than me and who is, moreover, depraved
enough, lazy enough and fierce enough to compel me to provide for his sustenance while he remains
idle? He must resolve not to lose sight of me for a single moment, and keep me cvery carefully bound
while he sleeps, for fear that I should escape or kill him: that is to say, he is obliged to expose himself
voluntarily to much worse trouble than the trouble he wishes to avoid, or gives to me....Withouth
expanding uselessly on these details, anyone must see that since the bonds of servitude are formed only
through the mutual dependence of men and the reciprocal needs that unite them, it is impossible to
enslave a man without first putting him in a situation where he cannot do without another man...” -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau from “A Discourse On Inequality”

“[W]hat is boasted of at the prestnt time as the revival of religion, is always, in narrow and uncultivated
minds, at least as much the revival of bigotry; and where there is the strongest permanent leaven of
intolerance in the feelings of a people, which at all times abides in the middle classes of this country, it
needs but little to provoke them into actively persecuting those whom they have never ceased to think
proper objects of persecution. For it is this-it is the opinions men entertain, and the feelings they
cherish, respecting those who disown the beliefs they deem important, which makes this country not a
place of mental freedom.” -John Stewart Mill “On Freedom”

“’When the great tao fell into disregard, did benevolence and justice arise; when knowledge and
cunning appeared, the great artificiality came into being.’ When the source of the tao dries up, men take
to the expedients of humanity and justice but in vain. It is as with the fish: ‘When the pool dries up, fish
makes room for fish upon the dry land, they moisten on another with damp breath, spray one another
with foam from the jaws. But how much better are they off when they can forget one another , in the
freedom of river and lake!’ Hence the right way is for men to live simply in the tao without artifice and
constraint, without thought or knowledge of good and evil.” (Tr. of Lao-tsu by Arthur Waley)-excerpt
from “Socrates Buddha Confucious Jesus” by Karl Jaspers)

Hobbes and Hume

John Martin Fischer

Plato and Aristotle

Harry Frankfurt

G. Strawson