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Freedom class 11 notes of political theory
These notes are short quick revision notes and are best used for study purpose
The idea of freedom
Let us discuss of two main personality
Nelson Mandela
- Known as Gandhi of south Africa
- Titled his biography as ' Long walk to freedom '
- He has fought against ' Apartheid ' ( a discrimination on basis of colour and race)
- He has spent his life's 28 years in prison
Aung San suu Kyi
- Inspired by Gandhi's idea of non violence
- Title of a biography is 'freedom from fear'
- She mentions start' for me real freedom is freedom from fear and unless you can leave free from fear you cannot leave a dignified human life'
- She had fight to store democratic form of government in Myanmar
- She remain house arrest and separate from her family
What is freedom?
- Freedom is absence of external constraints of an individual
- Freedom is about expanding the capability of people to freely express themselves and develop their potential with minimum constraints
- Freedom allows people to make choices
- A free society enables all its members to develop their full potential with minimum social constraints no one living in the society can have a total absence of constraints it is necessary to determine which one are justified and which one are not
Swaraj
- It's the terms Swaraj is made from 2 words swa meaning self and Raj meaning rule it can be understood to mean both the rule of self and rule over self
- The famous Tilak's statement 'Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it'
- Gandhi in his book Hind Swaraj 1909 has mentioned that Swaraj is when we learn to rule our self Swaraj is not just freedom but liberation in redeeming one self respect self responsibility and cities for self realization
The sources of constraints
- They can be applied by external force all by domination example the colonial rule
- They can be imposed by government
- They can also rise from social inequality
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose that by means of freedom he means all round freedom not only emancipation but also equal distribution of wealth, abolition of cost barrier and social inequality
Why do we need constraints?
- Freedom without constraints is called absolute freedom which can harm others as we live in society
- Every society need some mechanism to control violence and settle disputes
- They are different views that may be conflicting
- In ideal society one can pursue its aspirations with minimum constraints but to creates such society some constraints are required
- We should have the respect differences and to do that we need some legal and political restraints to ensure that differences may be discussed and debated without one group imposing views on other
- We also want a more strong legal protection to insure that no one harm us
Liberty
- In a democratic nation Liberty means freedom with some restriction
- It's the state of being free within the society from operation restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life
Harm principal
- Harm principal gives the answer to which constraints are justified and which are not.
- John Stuart mill stated this in his essay 'on liberty '
- He distinguishes between self regarding and other regarding actions
- Self regarding actions are individual actions that cause no harm to others
- It is a state in which no external authority has to interfere
- Other regarding actions causes harm to the society
- On other regarding actions harm principle is applied
- External forces need to interfere as this actions cause harm to others
- Mill States for minor harm social disapproval is enough and there is no need for legal actions or action by law
- Constraint shouldn't be that severe at the destroy freedom
- Justified constraints or reasonable restrictions are required
- The constraints depends on society and its norms
Negative and positive Liberty
Negative liberty
- It's an area where no external authority can interfere there are no constraints impossible on an individual in that particular area
- However there is always a debate about boundaries till where the area exist
- It also over what area am I the master?
- Explain the idea freedom from?
Positive Liberty
- It is concerned between individual and society few restrictions or constraints are required to develop the individual
- It answers who governs me? the answer to this question is I govern myself. Until and unless I allow someone to govern me.
- It explains the idea freedom to?
Freedom of expression
- It means the freedom to express one view legitimately
- It's an area of not interference for this societies willing to protected however few constraints are there which are back by social, religious, cultural authority or state
- According to Voltaire statement 'I disapprove what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it'
John Stuart mill
- A political thinker and activist of 19th century Britain
- In this work only body he offered 4 reasons why there should be freedom of expression even for those who's Idea appear false or misleading today
- No idea is completely false what appears to us false has an element of truth
- Truth does not emerge by itself it emerge by a conflict of opposing views. Ideas that are wrong today may have been very valuable in the emergence of what we consider right kind of ideas
- The concept of ideas is valuable not just in the past but in all times. Truth always have a risk of being reduced it is only when we exposed this to opposing views we can be sure that the idea is trustworthy
- We cannot be sure that what we consider true is always true when you times the idea that is considered false by the society suppresses it. All ideas that are not acceptable today how are danger of losing the benefit of what my turn out to be more valuable knowledge
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