Kindly READ AND REFLECT the following reading materials in line with the concept of civil

society, liberty, human rights, political obligation, and state-building as a whole.

Reflect on the following philosophical questions that would also guide the resumption of our
face-to-face classes next week.

1. What is the difference between freedom and liberty?

2. How do we strike a balance between individualism versus nation-state building?
3. What is the origin of power?
4. Is capitalism a progressive system? Why or why not?
5. What are the excesses of modern political life?

Liberty is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “The state of being free within society from
oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.”,
while freedom is defined as “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.”
Freedom is the state of being free from any oppression, while liberty is the freedom to act in
one's own way. Liberty is a significant concept because people enjoying liberty have to take
responsibility for their actions performed.
Sometimes liberty is differentiated from freedom by using the word "freedom" primarily, if not
exclusively, to mean the ability to do as one wills and what one has the power to do; and using
the word "liberty" to mean the absence of arbitrary restraints, taking into account the rights of all
involved. - Wikipedia

By liberty, it meant protection against the tyranny of the political rulers. John Stuart Mill

CARLO’S THOUGHTS:
● Freedom is absolute in nature meaning that there are no restrictions to it, it is like a bird
in the free sky which can move in any direction it likes. But in the case of liberty, it is the
freedom enjoyed by an individual within the moral constructs of the society, that is, the
ability to do things freely adhering to certain preconceived notions of the organized
society.
● Freedom is an assessment of one’s ability to conduct personal affairs independently
without external restriction, encumbrance, hindrance, or restraint. Freedom may include
any dimension of personal existence (e.g. legal, moral, financial, philosophical, spiritual).
● According to John Locke, humanity has been born into perfect freedom. We are naturally
free. We are free to do what we want, when we want, how we want, within the bounds of
the “law of nature.”
● According to John Stuart Mill in his literary work, “On Liberty”, Nothing and noone live
in absolute freedom, a state where they do not exist absolute and unqualified because
we’re all, in one way or another, limited by something (either the rule of nature or the
rule of man).

● Liberty is a state of normalized, collective freedom moderated by a government and its

rule of law. Liberty, though constituted to ensure freedom of all, must limit the freedom
of one to protect the freedom of another (e.g. - Liberty is violated when one kills another
without ‘due cause’. Likewise, Liberty is defaced when its laws allow one person to
deprive another of personal freedom against their will).
● According to John Locke in his work “The Second Treatise of Government”, Liberty is
freedom from restraint and violence by others; and this can’t be had where there is no
law. He also states in the same work that the natural liberty of man is to be free from any
superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of men but to
be ruled only by the law of nature. The Liberty of Man in Society, on the other hand, is to
be under no legislative power except the one established by consent in the
commonwealth; and not under the power of any will or under restraint from any law
except what is enacted by the legislature in accordance with its mandate