Scott Hughes's Two Concepts Of Liberty

I. INTRODUCTION

Freedom has been associated with numerous concepts such as liberty, rights, and life. Likewise, it has also become an important and salient concept in the social sciences as well as philosophical if not ethical debate among human actions and relations. In addition, this idea encompassed the moral, political and social doctrines for the holistic development of man. Scott Hughes (2007), delineated freedom in three interrelated but fundamental concepts such as self-control, political equality, and legal right. Further, freedom as a self-control also means self-ownership, a political empowerment, and equal empowerment, thus it is the equal distribution of rights in the free society. Henceforward, an individual’s rights are also

History, as chronologically presented by scholars were series of conflicts and forces which included human movements that were innate to human beings as a political and social animal. Hence, he came up with the issues of obedience and coercion. Accordingly, he believed that to coerce was to deprive people of their freedom which excluded people from happiness and goodness. He left questions as to what extent a person should be able to perform things without interference and second, what or who can control to determine someone to

Existentialism finds the answer to the absurdities present in the world including issues about human freedom.

Dudley (ND) averred that Kant’s idea of freedom is inclusive than the libertarian thought. Further, Kant illuminated that choices are determined by autonomous will and are not subject to restrictions. Likewise, there is freedom of the will and that will is subject to the condition of genuine freedom of choice.

Kant wrote the Metaphysics of Ethics (1797) where he described his ethical system that is based on a belief that the reason is the final authority for morality. Moreover, human actions of any kind undertaken by the person is a result of the sense of duty dictated by reason. Kant also divided reason into two parts; hypothetical imperative which dictates that human actions were performed for a certain end, and the other is categorical imperative which is the basis of morality: “Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a general natural law.” Thus, freedom is not a lawless freedom of anarchy but rather of self-government, the freedom to obey with consciousness on the universal laws manifested through reason. The end of every freedom is to ensure the welfare of each individual in which reason dictates toward an ideal