Freedom is at the heart of our lives. It affects all our decisions, our relationships with others, the organization of our societies, the economy, morality.

Knowing that it affects each of our lives, it is surprising to see how little we know about it. Freedom is the fundamental question that determines peace, justice, progress, prosperity, health, and happiness, or war, injustice, stagnation, poverty, and misery. Isn't the history of civilizations the testimony of a relentless struggle for freedom? I have titled this course: a philosophical history of freedom. It is indeed about exploring how philosophers have conceived freedom throughout the ages.

The goal of this course is not only to illuminate the past but to find in the past elements of a better understanding of what freedom is and the reasons why we must cherish and defend it.

But why should freedom be defended? Are we not already free?

A Journey Through the Philosophical History of Freedom

In this course, we will follow the intuition of the thinker Friedrich Hayek who issued a warning to the Western world 80 years ago in his book The Road to Serfdom. Freedom can be won, but it can also be lost, through betrayal, abandonment, and ignorance. This course cannot cover all the details of history. We will focus on individual freedom, its progress from Antiquity to the era of revolutions in the Age of Enlightenment, and then its decline from the end of the 19th century.

We will see how Rome, the greatest liberal power of the ancient world, plunged into economic and monetary chaos. We will see that civilization found a form of peak with the birth of universities in the 12th century and how capitalism had its first successes in the Middle Ages, in the trading cities of northern Italy.

However, the study of history highlights a permanent conflict between two opposing visions of social organization: individual freedom and power.

The philosophy of freedom advocates for individual freedom and personal responsibility. Individuals must be free to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they do not resort to violence against others. The philosophy of power, on the other hand, supports the idea that a group or an individual has the right to impose their will on others, often by force.

This philosophy has taken various forms throughout history, from Caesarism to communism and the welfare state, but its essence remains the same: domination and control. The philosophy of power has always been more attractive to those who govern, as it allows them to justify their domination and maintain their control. The philosophy of freedom, on the other hand, is often defended by those who are oppressed or marginalized, because it offers the hope of a more just and equitable society.

But the great lesson of history is that where initiative is free, economic, social, cultural, political progress is always superior to the results obtained by planned and centralized societies.

Start the course for free: PHI201.