Freedom and Duty

Freedom and the consciousness of freedom, as a capacity for following the moral law with an unyielding disposition, is independence from inclinations ... .
- Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (T.K. Abbott translation. 1873)

Would you like to really be free?

Teen agers often think that when they reach their sixteenth birthday they will finally be free-free to drive and go where they please, free to be independent of restrictions, But they soon learn a deep truth about life freedom brings more responsibility, not less. Now they have to learn to drive well enough to pass the license examination, and they have to buy gasoline and insurance and take care of the car itself, and on and on.

Kant was perhaps the first philosopher to realize really clearly the connection between freedom and responsibility. Freedom is not freedom from responsibility, but freedom to be responsible. A teen-ager who is too childish and irresponsible will not be trusted with a driver's license. And if he is, he will not keep it long. When you fail in life to meet your duties, you inevitably lose your freedom.

There are times in life when we wish we could get out from under out duties and responsibilities. Sometimes duty is too much for us. And so we turn to alcohol, drugs, mental illness, criminality- whereupon we lose our responsibilities, and our freedom as well. The drunk, for example, is hardly free. He is in bondage, and cannot handle responsibility. He is not free to do his duty, to meet his responsibilities to his family. The whimsical, irresponsible person is anything but free. He, or she, is in bondage to whims and drives and forces. Such a person has a weak will, a weak character.

Have you ever wished to be free of your responsibilities? That's impossible, though, isn't it?

Bibliography

Hartnack, Justus. Kant's Theory of Knowledge, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1967.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Practical Reason, T.K. Abbot translation, The Liberal Arts Press, Inc., New York, 1962.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason, St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York, 1965.