freedom reflection essay

Essays About Freedom: 5 Helpful Examples and 7 Prompts

Freedom seems simple at first; however, it is quite a nuanced topic at a closer glance. If you are writing essays about freedom, read our guide of essay examples and writing prompts.

In a world where we constantly hear about violence, oppression, and war, few things are more important than freedom. It is the ability to act, speak, or think what we want without being controlled or subjected. It can be considered the gateway to achieving our goals, as we can take the necessary steps.

However, freedom is not always “doing whatever we want.” True freedom means to do what is righteous and reasonable, even if there is the option to do otherwise. Moreover, freedom must come with responsibility; this is why laws are in place to keep society orderly but not too micro-managed, to an extent.

5 Examples of Essays About Freedom

1. essay on “freedom” by pragati ghosh, 2. acceptance is freedom by edmund perry, 3. reflecting on the meaning of freedom by marquita herald.

4. Authentic Freedom by Wilfred Carlson

5. What are freedom and liberty? by Yasmin Youssef

1. what is freedom, 2. freedom in the contemporary world, 3. is freedom “not free”, 4. moral and ethical issues concerning freedom, 5. freedom vs. security, 6. free speech and hate speech, 7. an experience of freedom.

“Freedom is non denial of our basic rights as humans. Some freedom is specific to the age group that we fall into. A child is free to be loved and cared by parents and other members of family and play around. So this nurturing may be the idea of freedom to a child. Living in a crime free society in safe surroundings may mean freedom to a bit grown up child.”

In her essay, Ghosh briefly describes what freedom means to her. It is the ability to live your life doing what you want. However, she writes that we must keep in mind the dignity and freedom of others. One cannot simply kill and steal from people in the name of freedom; it is not absolute. She also notes that different cultures and age groups have different notions of freedom. Freedom is a beautiful thing, but it must be exercised in moderation.

“They demonstrate that true freedom is about being accepted, through the scenarios that Ambrose Flack has written for them to endure. In The Strangers That Came to Town, the Duvitches become truly free at the finale of the story. In our own lives, we must ask: what can we do to help others become truly free?”

Perry’s essay discusses freedom in the context of Ambrose Flack’s short story The Strangers That Came to Town : acceptance is the key to being free. When the immigrant Duvitch family moved into a new town, they were not accepted by the community and were deprived of the freedom to live without shame and ridicule. However, when some townspeople reach out, the Duvitches feel empowered and relieved and are no longer afraid to go out and be themselves.

“Freedom is many things, but those issues that are often in the forefront of conversations these days include the freedom to choose, to be who you truly are, to express yourself and to live your life as you desire so long as you do not hurt or restrict the personal freedom of others. I’ve compiled a collection of powerful quotations on the meaning of freedom to share with you, and if there is a single unifying theme it is that we must remember at all times that, regardless of where you live, freedom is not carved in stone, nor does it come without a price.”

In her short essay, Herald contemplates on freedom and what it truly means. She embraces her freedom and uses it to live her life to the fullest and to teach those around her. She values freedom and closes her essay with a list of quotations on the meaning of freedom, all with something in common: freedom has a price. With our freedom, we must be responsible. You might also be interested in these essays about consumerism .

4. Authentic Freedom by Wilfred Carlson

“Freedom demands of one, or rather obligates one to concern ourselves with the affairs of the world around us. If you look at the world around a human being, countries where freedom is lacking, the overall population is less concerned with their fellow man, then in a freer society. The same can be said of individuals, the more freedom a human being has, and the more responsible one acts to other, on the whole.”

Carlson writes about freedom from a more religious perspective, saying that it is a right given to us by God. However, authentic freedom is doing what is right and what will help others rather than simply doing what one wants. If freedom were exercised with “doing what we want” in mind, the world would be disorderly. True freedom requires us to care for others and work together to better society.

“In my opinion, the concepts of freedom and liberty are what makes us moral human beings. They include individual capacities to think, reason, choose and value different situations. It also means taking individual responsibility for ourselves, our decisions and actions. It includes self-governance and self-determination in combination with critical thinking, respect, transparency and tolerance. We should let no stone unturned in the attempt to reach a state of full freedom and liberty, even if it seems unrealistic and utopic.”

Youssef’s essay describes the concepts of freedom and liberty and how they allow us to do what we want without harming others. She notes that respect for others does not always mean agreeing with them. We can disagree, but we should not use our freedom to infringe on that of the people around us. To her, freedom allows us to choose what is good, think critically, and innovate.

7 Prompts for Essays About Freedom

Freedom is quite a broad topic and can mean different things to different people. For your essay, define freedom and explain what it means to you. For example, freedom could mean having the right to vote, the right to work, or the right to choose your path in life. Then, discuss how you exercise your freedom based on these definitions and views.

The world as we know it is constantly changing, and so is the entire concept of freedom. Research the state of freedom in the world today and center your essay on the topic of modern freedom. For example, discuss freedom while still needing to work to pay bills and ask, “Can we truly be free when we cannot choose with the constraints of social norms?” You may compare your situation to the state of freedom in other countries and in the past if you wish.

A common saying goes like this: “Freedom is not free.” Reflect on this quote and write your essay about what it means to you: how do you understand it? In addition, explain whether you believe it to be true or not, depending on your interpretation.

Many contemporary issues exemplify both the pros and cons of freedom; for example, slavery shows the worst when freedom is taken away, while gun violence exposes the disadvantages of too much freedom. First, discuss one issue regarding freedom and briefly touch on its causes and effects. Then, be sure to explain how it relates to freedom.

Some believe that more laws curtail the right to freedom and liberty. In contrast, others believe that freedom and regulation can coexist, saying that freedom must come with the responsibility to ensure a safe and orderly society. Take a stand on this issue and argue for your position, supporting your response with adequate details and credible sources.

Many people, especially online, have used their freedom of speech to attack others based on race and gender, among other things. Many argue that hate speech is still free and should be protected, while others want it regulated. Is it infringing on freedom? You decide and be sure to support your answer adequately. Include a rebuttal of the opposing viewpoint for a more credible argumentative essay.

For your essay, you can also reflect on a time you felt free. It could be your first time going out alone, moving into a new house, or even going to another country. How did it make you feel? Reflect on your feelings, particularly your sense of freedom, and explain them in detail.

Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Freedom and the Social and Human Condition: A Reflective Essay

ABSTRACT In this reflective essay, the author makes an urgent appeal to humanity in favor of the adoption of a concept of freedom that recognizes that it, freedom, can only be realized when assumed with a sense of moral, axiological, and ethical responsibility, as well as a sense of obligation and respect towards the “Other” and all beings who find themselves in situations of vulnerability. The author’s line of argumentation is grounded on the great philosophical, axiological, and social European thought traditions, and it is accompanied by a critique of some post-modernist currents of thought as well as the primacy given to the logic of capital accumulation in contemporary societies. The latter have brought us to a social state characterized by debauchery, selfishness (me first), arrogance, in sum, an “anything goes” way of life. This societal state, in turn, and in another extreme, has resulted in the emergence of orthodoxies, demagoguery, bigotry, and various forms of oppression. It has also led to the devaluation and trivialization of the arts and the humanities, precisely because they cannot be easily subjugated to the logic of accumulation of savage capitalism. KEY WORDS: freedom, sense, western philosophy, modernity, post-modernism, human condition, dialectical polarities

Related Papers

Radical Philosophy Review

NICOLAS VEROLI

Beginning from a critique of neoliberalism, and in particular of its concept of freedom, I lay the foundations for developing a critical theory of neoliberal globalization. But, in order to escape the current hegemony of neoliberal ideology, I argue that we must reconnect with the radical traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries. By excavating the debate Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse had about the nature of freedom in the pages of Dissent in the mid-1950s, I try to escape the neoliberal conception of freedom as individual autonomy, and to reconstruct a social theory of freedom as love. Because Fromm and Marcuse were intellectuals of their times, I argue that while their debate gives us some clues about how to reconstruct a radical theory of freedom, it is vital to articulate our conception on a new basis that relies neither on the presuppositions of classical psychoanalytic metapsychology nor on a Marxist sociology of alienation. Instead I develop a kind of naturalist phenomenology of the ego as radically open to the world and as fundamentally vulnerable on the basis of recent research in the human and life sciences. And it is precisely this openness/vulnerability that forms the basis of the human capacity to associate with others in a relationship of forming/being formed, or what I call ‘connective expression.’ And it is precisely this uniquely human capacity for a deep sociability that is being corrupted by the ever-intensifying market relations over which neoliberalism presides.

European Journal of Political Theory

Alexandros Kioupkiolis

Federica Gregoratto

Marco Solinas

Michael Hemmingsen

Human Beings and Freedom: An Interdisciplinary Perspective focuses on some contemporary issues relating to freedom, equality, identity and resistance from various perspectives, such as psychological, social, political, and metaphysical. In doing so it addresses topics such as the nature of human beings, political freedom, the relationship between freedom and equality, sex, gender and race, humour, and the notion of critique. Some twenty professors have contributed to this volume, which brings together thinkers from a range of social science and humanities disciplines and incorporates both Eastern and Western thought. Each of the main articles is followed by two responses from thinkers outside the author's discipline. Hence it gives rise to varied and interesting interdisciplinary discourses and critiques. This book will be useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as to professionals in the fields of humanities and social sciences. Articles: "Could This Women's World Champ Be a Man?": Caster Semenya and the Limits of Being Human by Anita Brady - This Woman is Also an African by Robbie Shilliam - Naturalising Gender by James Meffan The Disorder of Things: Foucault, Disciplinary Procedures and Enlightenment Discourse by Tony Schirato - Foucault and the Politics of Self by Pat Moloney - Parrhēsia and the Problem of Moral Authority by David Rosenbloom Reassessing the Right to Laughter: Humour, Dissent and the Liberal Imagination by Nicholas Holm - Tracking Footprints? by Mike Lloyd - Laughter from a Historical Perspective by Dolores E. Janiewski The Political Role of Freedom and Equality as Human Values by Marc Stewart Wilson & Christopher G. Sibley - Flexible Freedom, Promiscuous Equality by Simon Keller - Enlarging the Context: A Transdisciplinary Perspective by Arthur Buehler After Post-Socialism: Social Theory, Utopia, and the Work of Castoriadis in a Global Age by Chamsy el-Ojeili - Against Overcorrection: Risking the Universal by Kate Schick - Globalisation and the (Temporary) Death of Grand Social Theories by James H. Liu Creating Lines of Flight and Activating Resistance: Deleuze and Guattari's War Machine by Robert Deuchars - Romanticising Resistance?: Deuchars, Deleuze and the Possibility of Living Differently by Ben Thirkell-White - The War Machine, Power and Humans as Social Animals by Ronald Fischer The Nature of Human Beings: East and West by J. L. Shaw - Reason and Persons in the Classical Greek World by Xavier Márquez - Alternative Models of Freedom in Buddhism by Michael Radich

European Romantic Review 18:2

Thomas Pfau

Tommaso Valentini

"FormaMente" è la rivista ufficiale di GUIDE, l’Associazione delle Global Universities In Distance Education; i volumi vengono pubblicati in forma cartacea presso Gangemi Editore di Roma; per la versione on line del volume e del paper si veda: https://formamente.guideassociation.org/ethics-and-politics-in-the-postmodern-condition/ Abstract: In this paper I analyze the postmodern condition with particular reference to the ethical and political spheres. Postmodernism attempts a radical break with all of the major strands of post-Enlightenment thought. For postmodernists as the French Jean-François Lyotard and the Italian Gianni Vattimo, the orthodox Enlightenment "meta-narrative" of progress and the "speculative" narrative of Hegel and Marx have lost their explanatory force. In particular, Lyotard speaks about five large meta-narratives of Western culture: 1) Christianity (understood also in the secularized form which its values have taken into modernity); 2) Enlightenment; 3) Idealism as a "theory of progressive freedom in history"; 4) Marxism, and 5) Capitalism. According to Lyotard, one can consider "the incredulity" towards these meta-narratives (méta-récits or grands récits) as postmodern. He points out that after Auschwitz it is impossible to speak of rationality and progress in Western history: In the twentieth century the Nazi genocide showed that history is not a continuous ethical progress towards the best. From the philosophical point of view the precursor of postmodern atmosphere is Friedrich Nietzsche. This German philosopher elaborated a radically anti-metaphysical thought and proposed an ethic of emancipation. Postmodernists refer to Nietzsche's thought and theorize ethical-political practices aimed at the emancipation of women and socially weak subjects. Postmodernism's rejection of "totalizing" theories with universal pretentions is complemented by positive celebration of diversity or "difference" and emphasis on the ethical demands of "the other": this is, for example, the ethical perspective of Michel Foucault.

Law and Critique

Ratna Kapur

Abstract The article challenges the claim that human rights, which have consti- tuted one of the central tools by which to establish the truth claims of modernity, can produce freedom and meaningful happiness through the acquisition of more rights and more equality. Third World, postcolonial and feminist legal scholars have challenged the accuracy of this claim, amongst others. The critiques expose the discursive operations of human rights as a governance project primarily concerned with ordering the lives of non-European peoples, rather than a liberating force; and that the pre-given rational subject of human rights is contingent and one of the prime effects of power. I examine the problems with the liberal humanism of human rights by examining not only how it is linked to a specific understanding of the ‘good life’, freedom and happiness, but also how it closes off other emancipatory possibilities. The acquisition of human rights as objects that an individual has by virtue of being human, represent the terminal limits of human rights, rather than the moment when the human subject becomes empowered and liberated. I draw on queer affect theory to make a critique of happiness, to which I argue human rights are linked, and how the failed or unhappy subaltern subject exposes its normative composition. I discuss the resulting depth of the despair produced from the reali- sation that this political project cannot realise its promise of freedom and mean- ingful happiness, compelling a ‘turn away’ from human rights as an emancipatory project and a ‘turn towards’ other non-liberal philosophical traditions, in the search for alternative understandings of and space for freedom and happiness. I explore these possibilities specifically within the philosophical tradition of non-dualism (Advaita).

Koers - Bulletin for Christian Scholarship

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Exploring the Complex Notions of Freedom: Mapping the Concept

Category: Social Issues , Life , Education
Topic: Concept of Freedom , Freedom , Personal Statement

Pages: 1 (559 words)

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