When every person acts with common sense and empathy, rules are not necessary.Ī rule-filled society is a society of childish people who are not responsible for their behaviors and lack self-determination, so they need external norms to regulate relationships. Freedom is asking ourselves what we want and how we can achieve it by respecting others. Its deep logic is not that of destruction it is that of creation ”.įreedom, therefore, is not simply asking what we want and pursuing it, at any cost.
Affirming the unity of the human condition, it is the force of life, not of death. “It can be said, therefore, that rebellion, when it leads to destruction, is illogical. It is the rebellion that is the measure, that which orders it, defends it and creates it again through history and its disorders. “Measure is not the opposite of rebellion. They are the essential counterweight that assures us that, in exercising our freedom, we will not exceed the limits of the other.įreedom would therefore be obtained by applying common sense and putting oneself in the other's shoes. Measure and empathy would be, on the other hand, the balances of the scale of individual liberties. Then, and only then, do we become self-determined people. He believed that values cannot be imposed, but are a personal decision that passes through an act of conscience through which we really identify with them, so that they govern our behavior independently of any external norm or law. This is why Camus suggested an exercise in introspection. When we become aware of something, when we make it our own, we bond with it. Once he recognizes them, he cannot get away from them ”, wrote Camus. What to do then? Measure, awareness and empathy Therefore, the search for unlimited freedom would soon turn into the repression of freedom. The absolute freedom of some would severely limit the freedom of others. The revolution for justice, for freedom ends up opposing each other ”.Ĭamus was convinced that adopting the mentality of "anything goes" and desiring absolute freedom would have the opposite effect, because the strongest would end up overwhelming and dominating the weaker. Absolute justice passes through the suppression of all contradictions: it destroys freedom. Therefore, it keeps conflicts for the benefit of injustice. “Absolute freedom is the right of the strongest to dominate.
"The rebellion is in no way a demand for total freedom It questions precisely the unlimited power that authorizes a superior to violate the forbidden border." This is why Camus does not propose the search for absolute freedom that can degenerate into debauchery and chaos, but supports a sense of justice and order based on individual conscience. Sometimes, as we exercise our freedom, we cross personal boundaries to interfere with and limit the freedom of others.
#Your freedom ends where mine begins free#
“We are free at the expense of someone else,” Caligula said. It proposes a "philosophy of the limit" that is worth investigating. Camus does not accept the existence of absolute values that can govern his life, but neither does he deny the scale of social values nor does he intend to destroy it on the altar of nihilism. The more we have to look to society to know what we can or cannot do, the less we develop our own morals that start from common sense and empathy.Īs Albert Camus warned, “I have seen people make mistakes with a lot of morals, but honesty does not need rules Where clarity reigns, the scale of values becomes useless”. The problem is that the more it adjusts from the outside, the less it adjusts from the inside. The Spanish Civil Code, for example, contains 1976 articles and the criminal one over 600. And, if possible, make the punishment for those who dare to violate them even clearer. It seems that the more we advance as a society, the more we feel the need to legislate.
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