Free, Free At Last

To experience living freely one must want to do (and do) what one feels obligated to do.

Freedom is often defined as "doing whatever you want," but what about the moral law? Does obeying it diminish freedom? It doesn't seem so. because doing what one should do should be consistent with being free, right? The problem, though, is that what I want to do is often not what I know I should do. For example, if I am addicted, I am not free.

A common solution is to pretend to wave away the moral law and to attempt to live the freedom of moral anarchy. But we know inside that we aren't are own moral legislators. The moral law is initially experienced as external to us, but a law nonetheless.

So how do we feel free in obeying moral law? We pray for a higher power (God) to overhaul or heal our will, so that I will want to do what I know I ought to do. This is akin to Harry Frankfurt's idea of a "second order" volition, willing for a will to do something. This is the solution for addicts, in the 12 step program, and shows a unique capacity of a human person, who can take a distance from himself, look at himself from the outside so to speak, and seek assistance from a higher power to reform one's will. When we can live in accordance with the moral law, freely, then we experience true freedom.

The process of getting to this point is how we "lead" our lives -- that is, lead ourselves in living our lives. Robert Sokolowski explains that we "shepherd" ourselves, at a meta level, which guides our "first order" will. To want to do what we know it is right to do, what we ought to do, is also a definition of virtue, for virtue is the strength that enables us to want to do what we ought.