What is Human Freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

What is Human Freedom - Essay Example "Freedom implies, therefore, the existence of an environment to be changed: obstacles to be surmounted, tools to be used. Certainly, it is freedom which reveals them as obstacles, but free choice can only interpret the meaning of their being. It is necessary that they be simply there, wholly brute, so that there may be freedom." The person who constantly tells the truth develops an environment of trust around him or herself. It is our experience that an environment of trust enables a whole range of actions and relationships that could not otherwise develop. (Pg. 58) Environment and culture are principles by which human beings can choose to guide themselves to live properly, in line with what is the good life for them. There are competing ethical systems, of course, but not all can be sound. The best ethical system is the one that most consistently and completely fulfills the purpose for which it is intended, namely, to guide human living toward success in the case of any particular person. A culture is ethically sound if it is in accord with those virtues that bear on community life, that is if it is just. "Rather than being encapsulated in a specific environment by a highly specialized adaptive evolution and being controlled by a complex pattern of genetically determined instincts, a human being is free to choose different environments and to adapt to those environments in different ways. Whereas the behavior of all other living beings follows certain patterns characteristic of all members of a given species, the behavior of human beings shows extraordinary variation. Different human groups develop particular cultures as part of the process of adapting to and shaping their environment and individual human beings use the resources of those particular cultures, for example, language, with virtually infinite variation" (Pg. 58). Freedom, as Kant recognized decisively, through morality, and cannot be understood from an objective point of view. Kant places human  freedom in a new horizon of its own beyond all objective categories and forms of intuition.