?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 free and yet in chains, because it is where they

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.

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(#): Porter, Jene M., ed. Classis in Political Philosiphy. Canada: Prentice-Hall, 1997