conceptual inquiry regarding meaning » concrete conditions » liberty
Formally, this node addresses one's own psychological conditions. Of course, insofar as one's psyche isn't cut off from the world but is part of it, psychological conditions don't simply mean internal conditions. Key to questions and answers here is the ability to discern what is and is not under one's control. We might notice first that the situations we find ourselves in are often not under our control, but how we respond to those situations is. Yet we might exhibit different degrees of self-control. Exhibiting the virtue of self-control is under one's control, but only if we recognize that it's hard won. Virtues in general are hard won. We have to train ourselves to develop good habits to slowly be able to exhibit virtues like self-control which in turn determine how successful we can become at achieving our ends in life—where one's end is to live up to one's full potential.
Whether or not we live in a culture that values individuality and personal freedom, all human beings need to have a sense that they're determining the course of their own lives. Our dignity is linked with this. And the respect we receive from others is linked with this.
Freedom, dignity, and respect come by degrees. The basic respect we are all due as beings capable of self-determination is a baseline. Others can respect us enough to leave us alone, for example. We might call this negative liberty. At the other end of the spectrum is the type of respect that is hard-earned as we, over time, engage in the world in such a way that others have come to recognize our personal value and are therefore willing to help us with our projects. We might call this positive liberty. People have to be assured that we've "done our homework" or have otherwise proven ourselves which typically involves having spent years giving the kind of respect to our elders that has obliged us to help them with their projects.
The conditions for positive freedom come as one has reached the stage in their life known as self-actualization—when one is actively living up to one's full potential. The type of freedom enjoyed at this stage involves maximal indepenedence within a network of interdependence. As social beings, to become self-actualized takes a lot of help from a lot of people. At this stage, an individual has fostered those connections and is now extended opportunities to determine their destiny.
B is the limit of Q's activity. Q in A is the activity of valuing by willing/committing. Perhaps, then, B is the state of Nietzsche's yes-sayer capable of embracing the philosophy of amor fati (love of fate), able to affirm every moment of his life. Moslty such a state will be a goal, motivating us, not from below (as a push), perhaps, but from before (as a pull).
Again, B is the limiting condition for Q's activity. Q of P is the activity of narrowing/focusing one's attention. This will be necessary for any volitional, self-determined act. Q of W is experiencing as self which is, again, an experiencing in a focused mode, focused on particulars.
Alternately, B as the limit of the activity attending to particulars (Q of P) could refer to the freedom that comes from being removed from history. Q of P is essentially analytical activity, whereby we chop the world up into manageable chunks. We chop that which is experienced into articulable facts, where facts are durational, like events. The more fine-grained our analysis, the smaller we chop, the shorter the duration, toward an instant of zero duration. Such an instant is free from the constraints of time. And perhaps this is what gives the analytical mind the experience of being free to think whatever it likes; it lives in a world populated by free-floating facts.
