Freedom

Some thoughts to keep in mind as we prepare to celebrate the 241st anniversary of the birth of the United States of America this July 4th…

Premodern philosophers viewed freedom as a prerequisite of human virtue. … Freedom is the means that allows human beings to become virtuous; it allows order to be instilled into human nature. If happiness qua virtue is the telos for man, then freedom is instrumental to – but does not constitute – that end.

— John Safranek

To imagine that freedom has no telos, no purpose other than itself, is precisely what we call nihilism, and we are drowning in it today.