What is the philosophical relationship between freedom and responsibility?
How about the fact that you have the freedom to be responsible? Or the responsibility to ensure the freedom of others? How about freedom must be accompanied by responsibility. You must exercise your freedom responsibly. Most people just don’t know what Responsible means! Being held accountable for EVERYTHING you say and do. THAT is being responsible. Not: So-and-so made me do it. I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t have a choice. There is always a choice, just not always one you like. You have the freedom to try not to purposefully hurt other people in any way shape or form while surviving and enjoying life.
Freedom is never absolute, in either the pure philisophical sense or in reality. Freedom does not mean the right to do anything you want. It means the right to do anything you want as long as you don’t interfere with another person’s right to do as they want. Its a subtle but very important difference. Responsibility is the way we earn our right to be free and you can’t have one without the other.
