The shaping of the contemporary idea of freedom

Abstract

Human beings yearn for freedom, and the concept has been shaped over the course of history, both politically and socially. The contemporary idea of freedom based on legal regulations and basic rights for all people has been developed by means of a series of philosophical thoughts and of political, economic, and cultural movements to have shaped this concept according to an individual’s right to self-determination. The ideas influencing this construction are thus researched by means of the thoughts of four modern philosophers: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. Furthermore, by means of and through the influence of these thinkers, two large movements have emerged to form the bases of the contemporary understanding of what freedom constitutes. Such movements – liberalism and romanticism – are also explored in this essay in order to examine the process to have shaped the idea of freedom in contemporary Western society, with its primary aim to ensure the individual rights of all peoples and to respect basic human rights.