Principles of FreedomMacSwiney, Terence J. (Terence Joseph)
Philosophy
Principles of Freedom
MacSwiney, Terence J. (Terence Joseph)
Home rule -- Ireland; Irish question; Liberty
I have no intention here of in any way criticising the doctrine of
Free-thought, but one so named cannot be ignored when we consider
Intellectual Freedom. This, then, has to be borne in mind when speaking
of Free-thought, that while it allows you latitude of opinion in many
things, it will not allow you freedom in all things, in, for example,
Revealed Religion. I only mention this to show that on both sides of
such burning questions you have disputants dogmatic. A dogmatic "yes"
meets an equally dogmatic "no." The dogmas differ and it is not part of
our business here to discuss them: but to come to a clear conception of
the matter in hand, it must be kept in mind, that if you,
notwithstanding, freely of your own accord, accept belief in certain
doctrines, the freethinkers will for that deny you freedom. And the
freethinkers are right in that they are dogmatic. (But this they
themselves appear to overlook.) Freedom is absolutely dogmatic. It is
fundamentally false that freedom implies no attachment to any belief, no
being bound by any law, "As free as the wind," as the saying goes, for
the wind is not free. Simple indeterminism is not liberty.
III
We must, then, find the true conception of Intellectual Freedom. It is
the freedom of the individual to follow his star and reach his goal.
That star binds him down to certain lines and his freedom is in exact
proportion to his fidelity to the lines. The seeming paradox may be
puzzling: a concrete example will make it clear. Suppose a man,
shipwrecked, finds himself at sea in an open boat, without his bearings
or a rudder. He is at the mercy of the wind and wave, without freedom,
helpless. But give him his bearings and a helm, and at once he recovers
his course; he finds his position and can strike the path to freedom. He
is at perfect liberty to scuttle his boat, drive it on the rocks or do
any other irrational thing; but if he would have freedom, he must follow
his star.
IV
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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