WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

There is an intimate relationship between freedom and responsibility, because responsibility implies that the individual can have freedom of action and decision. Therefore, freedom necessarily leads to responsibility.

Freedom is the power to choose that individuals in society have, while responsibility is the attitude of the person to respond for the actions that they freely choose.

They are two parallel concepts but that, at the same time, go hand in hand, as one leads to the other.

It is worth saying that freedom can become a subject of responsibility. People are responsible for their actions in principle, because they decide on them and they are their cause.

To analyze how both concepts are related, it is convenient to be clear about their meaning.

What is the Liberty?

The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) offers the following definition of the term freedom:

It is the "natural faculty that man has to act in one way or another, and not to act, so he is responsible for his actions."

But this freedom is not absolute, because generally the person is conditioned by other elements that regulate their actions, such as coercion, fear, violence, ignorance, culture, social norms and conventions, mental disorders, among others.

The human being enjoys several types of freedom:

Internal freedom or free will

It is the choice that the individual makes when deciding with self-determination between good and bad.

External freedom or action

It is freedom of action, without impediments or physical, social, cultural, economic or legal conditions.

What is liability?

The DRAE also defines responsibility in two senses. As a response to an illicit conduct, which would be the "debt, obligation to repair and satisfy, by oneself or by another person, as a result of a crime, fault or other legal cause."

In a second sense, it defines it as a response to a certain action; that is to say, the “existing capacity in every active subject of law to recognize and accept the consequences of a freely performed act”.

Every person is immersed in a circle of responsibility to which he must answer for his actions. This circle is made up of the person herself, her family, the social or work group and society.

Freedom and responsibility

As can be seen, the concepts of freedom and responsibility are closely related.

For a person to be responsible for his actions, it is essential that he be able to have freedom of action, with no limitations other than his own conscience and moral values.

For this reason, it is considered that the mentally ill, children, and animals are not responsible for their actions, because they do not have a full conscience or lack the use of reason.

Irish writer George Bernard Shaw summed up the relationship of the two concepts of life in one sentence: “Freedom means responsibility. That is why most men fear him.

For his part, the Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater points out that: “We are not free to choose what happens to us”, or what we are or have as people (ugly, beautiful, poor, rich, sick), but we are “free to respond to what happens to us in this or that way ”, either by obeying or through resignation.

In summary, it can be affirmed that in the absence of individual freedom there is no responsibility, nor is it possible to preserve freedom without responsibility, derived from individual moral regulations and from the Law itself.

References

1. Stahl, Bernd Carsten. Responsible Management of Information Systems. The Montfort University, UK. Idea Group Publishing, 2004. Consulted of books.google.co.
2. Russel, Paul. Freedom & Moral Sentiment. Oxford University Press, 1995. GoogleBooks
3. Lee, Dwight R. Liberty and Individual Responsibility. Foundation for economic education. Consulted from fee.org
4. Responsibility and Freedom. Digital Public School. University of La Punta. Consulted on October 3 from contentsdigitales.ulp.edu.ar
5. Freedom. Consulted of dle.rae.es
6. A Republic, If You Can Keep It. Consulted of governingprinciples.wordpress.com
7. Freedom and Responsibility. Consulted of ucsc.cl