FREEDOM OF RESPONSIBILITY

Many people go no further than this point. They contend that freedom is simply a condition in which each person is both free to choose, and free to act upon his or her choices, with slavery being the opposite.

What this leaves is the recurring question as to the desirability of freedom, and illustrates rather clearly why so many people are afraid of it!

If an individual is free to do exactly as he or she pleases, these people reason,what is to prevent the free individual from attacking another individual and making that individual his or her slave? Obviously, the attacker is choosing, and acting, as he or she pleases.

What such a situation illustrates, however, is a condition that we describe as license, not freedom. License (in this sense) is defined as "freedom that allows, or is used with, irresponsibility".

We most often use the term license in this way in order to describe a situation in which an individual is allowed or empowered to do anything and everything he or she pleases, without regard for the rights of others. This however is considered acting without responsibility as we have defined it.

It is this condition of license (irresponsible, intrusive action) that is most often associated with a state of anarchy.

If we go no further than the mental or physical dimensions of freedom, we would have to say that there is indeed no difference between freedom and license.

However, as we have already indicated, freedom invariably relates to an inter-human situation.