Jeanna Albano
Divine Word College of Laoag
Abstract.
Understanding and applying the concept of freedom is contextual.
Living life freely within the social context. Thus, since it is within the
social context, freedom is not a license to do whatever you want to do, it is
not an absolute. Your freedom ends when you cross the boundaries of the freedom
of others and cultural, social and moral values. Western society and Eastern
society may understand and apply freedom differently, but not necessarily the
same. The purpose of education is to
teach children to live their freedom within the context where they are.
Key Words: Freedom, social context, values.
Introduction
Freedom is one of the most frequently used words in
our time and often it is misused. Thus it is necessary to be defined and well
understood. A proper understanding of freedom will help us to conduct ourselves
properly.
Different societies often time emphasize different
meanings of freedom. Western and Eastern societies may emphasize different
freedom. One might emphasize outer freedom and the other inner freedom. Outer
freedom is freedom of action, political or social freedom. Inner freedom is
freedom of the mind, freedom from the bondage of ignorance of human nature and
its potentialities. Ignorance breeds fear, suspicion, hatred, and confusion.
However, to function in society, one must give up
his identity, conform to anonymous authorities and adopt successful roles
(Monte Mayor, 1999). Thus he escapes from inner freedom. The more he escapes
from his inner freedom to act according to his will, the more powerless he
feels and the more meaningless his life seems to be. If life loses its meaning
because it is not lived, man becomes desperate. The ideas of freedom and
democracy deteriorate into nothing but irrational faith once they are not based
upon the productive experience of each individual but are presented to him by
parties and states which force him to believe in these ideas.
This
article would like to discuss further the meaning of freedom and how we are
going to live this freedom within context and teach children to live freely
within context. In this article, the context that the researcher wants to emphasize
is the eastern context.
Freedom Defined.
What is freedom? Freedom is not a
license to do whatever we want. The word freedom has many different meanings
depending on the context. Each person's construction of meaning for their own life
depends on freedom. There are two kinds of freedom: The first is freedom of
thought, freedom of mind or freedom of conscience. This is what we call inner
freedom, a function of maturate growth or maturity or self-actualization. The
second is freedom of choice or freedom of action. This is called outer freedom.
The two are interrelated. True freedom emerges when true inner freedom
translates into authentic outer freedom.
The definition of freedom varies with the cultural context. The principles of freedom and democracy are based on
responsible freedom which is freedom of thinking and feeling derived from the
activity of the human conscience. Inner freedom is a function of
morality; it means the maturation of personality integration of
conscience. Conscience is the biological mechanism for the maintenance of
integration of the human personality in a complex social environment. The human
conscience is a free conscience and the development of the human conscience
depends on the fulfillment of human needs for unconditional love, work etc. Morality
is a function of moral development. Moral development is a function of the
development of the human conscience. The human conscience is the human spirit. It
is the guardian of the integration of the human personality. It is the core of
human values which have evolved through natural selection as a result of its
survival value to the human organism's need to adapt to a complex social
environment. It is a biologically based intrinsic valuing system which is
developed as a protection for the integrated human organism. It is the result
of evolutionary processes. The human organism depends on the conscience and the
spirit; it is for the survival of the individual organism and the survival of
the species. The development of the
human conscience results in humanistic morality or free morality as opposed to
authoritarian morality. Free morality is morality based on inner freedom. The
development of free morality is a result of the development of inner freedom.
And it is the biological basis of the so-called higher values.
Still in
line with the meaning of freedom, according to Mortimer Adler (1963), there are
three distinct meanings of freedom: 1) an individual is said to be free when
external circumstances permit him/her to act as he wishes for his good; 2) an
individual is said to be free when he/she has acquired enough virtue or wisdom
to be able willingly to do as he ought, to comply with the moral law, or to
live by an ideal befitting human nature. This kind of freedom resides in an
individual's state of mind or character, and it is quite independent of all
external circumstances; 3) all men are said to be free because they are endowed
by nature with the power of free choice, the power to decide for themselves
what they shall do or become.
The Western Concept of Freedom
The Western concept of freedom is freedom of choice. In the
Western world, freedom is perceived in terms of the ability to satisfy personal
desires and impulses for self-expression in the absence of obstructions
and restraining influences of authoritarianism. The emphasis is on
external factors of freedom as they relate to the outer aspects of life or
politics - freedom of expression, autonomy, self-determination, self-dependence,
self-regulation and democracy.
Such a concept of freedom has
influenced economic and political concepts. Freedom and capitalism denigrate the
value of true freedom in American capitalist society. In American culture, the
ideals of political freedom are used by the propaganda machine in the interests
of capitalism to divert people's attention to the choice of products which they
as consumers can buy. In the consumer society, people are kept ignorant of the
real meaning of freedom and conditioned to think that they enjoy the freedom to
choose. Freedom of choice as outer freedom is not the translation of
freedom of thought. The inner freedom is to act from conviction and internal
harmony according to one's own will or
conscience. Freedom of conscience is not encouraged or even allowed. Freedom
in capitalist society is the outer freedom which emphasizes the outer aspect of
life and is often confused with political and social freedom. As a result of
the suppression of inner freedom, the individual does not know what he wants,
what he thinks or what he feels. He is not free according to his own will,
acting from inner harmony and conviction. To function in society, he must give
up his identity, conform to anonymous authorities and adopt successful roles.
The more he escapes from his inner freedom to act according to his own will and
conscience, the more powerless he feels and the more meaningless his life seems
to be. Freedom as inner freedom emphasizes
the inner aspect of life and can be likened to the German word
for freedom - 'freiheit' in which the root 'heit' refers to the inner
condition or state of mind or consciousness state. The closest English
equivalent would be 'freedom hood' meaning 'freedom of one's consciousness state,
the conscious inner struggle for inner freedom for which all human beings strive
for understanding and knowledge of one's connectedness with the world and other
beings in the world (Maguigad, 2005).
The Eastern Concept of Freedom
The Eastern concept of freedom is
freedom of the mind. In the Eastern world, freedom is perceived in terms of the
ability to act according to those convictions which result from internal harmony
and freedom of conscience or free will. Emphasis is on internal factors of
freedom as they relate to the inner aspects of life or the inner life - freedom
from conditioning, freedom from fear, freedom from desire, and freedom from
sorrow. Inner freedom is not a question of will but of observation and
contemplation. Inner freedom is based on the ability to see reality as it is,
with a sense of responsibility or caring i.e. love in the sense of
loving-kindness, wisdom of compassion and creative intelligence. Creative
intelligence is functional in the normal growth and development of society. Social intelligence is a function of optimal
mental health. Social intelligence is also the capability to sense social
reality and consider social reality when making decisions or actions. Education for social intelligence is
education for the cultivation of the total human being; an example is holistic
education. Holistic education is responsible education which allows for freedom
to learn from experience or experiential learning
Teaching the Children to Live Freedom within the Eastern Context
and Values
To teach the right meaning and practice
of freedom can be done through holistic perception and holistic education.
It should be remembered that freedom is the most important condition necessary
to ensure the cultivation of natural development - not freedom as a license but
freedom with control and responsibility.
Although freedom in the Eastern context is the freedom of the mind, the ability
to act according to the conviction that results from internal harmony and
freedom of conscience, however, the application of such freedom is not absolute,
in the sense that someone cannot just act based on his conviction alone but
social realities and moral values are factors to tame freedom. In the Eastern
context, freedom is not regarded as a free ticket to do whatever you want to do
but as freedom that is placed within the social context. Such a concept should be inculcated at the
beginning of childhood. Since childhood, a child is oriented to what it means
to be free within the context.
Learning is a natural function of the
brain and the healthy mind. There is no such thing as a neutral educational
process. Education functions either as an instrument which is used to
facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the
present system and bring about conformity to it or it becomes the practice of freedom, how men and women
deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in
the transformation of their world. The development of an educational methodology
that facilitates this process will inevitably lead to tension and conflict
within our society. But it could also contribute to the formation of a new man
and mark the beginning of a new era in Western history.
Real freedom
is a consequence of development and education; it is the consequence of latent guides,
aided by education. It is the construction of the personality, reached by
effort and one's own experiences; it is the long road which every child must
take to reach maturity. Development cannot be taught. Freedom does not consist in keeping up an uninterrupted and unimpeded
external activity but is something achieved through conquering, by personal
reflection, the difficulties that prevent immediate overflow into action and
spontaneous success and genuine freedom is intellectual. It rests on the power
of thought. To cultivate unhindered, unreflective, external activity is to
foster enslavement, for it leaves the person at the mercy of appetite, sense and
circumstance (Kesson, 2010).
The result of a good education
must be to produce a mature person. A mature person would be a person who knows
how to use his freedom in the proper context. Though the concept of freedom is
universal the application of such freedom is contextual. Contexts are always
different depending on where you are in this world. When you are in Western
culture, the application of freedom should be adjusted to the Western context
and when you are in the Eastern world, the application of freedom should be
adjusted within the Eastern context. Western culture may emphasize
individuality and independence, while Eastern culture would emphasize social
harmony and interdependence. As a consequence, the application of freedom for
the East would be limited by the concept of harmony. Your freedom ends when you
destroy harmony and social relationships. It is not like 'mind your own
business' and don't mind my business as in the Western culture. Thus children
must know where they are and learn how to exercise freedom within the context
where they are. It is like a Filipino behaves like an American and an American
behaves like a Filipino. It is what is happening. Besides, there can be no
freedom independent of social, moral and cultural context. For the human individual in a cultural context, the nature of
reality is determined by the nature of the cultural environment. The nature of
the cultural environment is determined by the cultural values, moral values and
belief systems.
Teaching Methodology
Teaching children about such
freedom is not an easy job; given the fact the world has no boundaries because
of technology. The Internet has communicated directly to children or students
what is happening around the globe. However, such a situation is not an excuse
for educators to teach children about the meaning of freedom within their
cultural values and social values. Humans are the product of their environment.
In line with that idea, educators must analyze the cultural context
in which they are doing their work of educating. There can be no educational
policy or practice independent of a social and cultural context and therefore
there is no such theory as objective educational theory. For the human
individual in a cultural context, the nature of reality is determined by the
nature of the cultural environment. The nature of the cultural environment is
determined by the cultural values and belief systems. Stimuli from the cultural
environment are directly related to the basic assumptions underlying the values
of the culture. They are peripheral to the stimuli in the field of focused
attention. As peripheral stimuli, they are processed by the brain at the
subconscious level. The cultural values are a product of the cultural belief
systems which make up the cultural consciousness. The cultural belief systems
are a product of the history of the culture. Cultural history forms the basis
of cultural consciousness, the source of the peripheral stimuli processed
subconsciously by the individual in a cultural context. The individual's
thought and behaviour patterns are influenced by the subconsciously processed
peripheral stimuli from the cultural environment. Unconsciously perceived and
processed by the brain, peripheral stimuli from the cultural environment are
inherent in the so-called cultural consciousness. The educational process for
the individual within a cultural context involves conscious thought patterns in
the framework of unconsciously processed environmental stimuli of the cultural
consciousness. The learning process combines the processing of environmental
peripheral stimuli with conscious thought processes involved in cognition.
Educational policies are formulated in the context of a prevailing cultural
worldview which is inherent in the prevailing cultural belief systems and
values. Cultural belief systems are created in the framework of the basic
assumptions underlying the cultural view of the world - the reality which is
perceived from the point of view of the people living in their own time. The
individuals within a given culture perceive their world from their point of
view, with the technology, the resources and the education accessible to them.
They identify with the belief systems of their culture and perceive the world
from the point of view of the cultural belief systems. An individual educated
within the context of given cultural belief systems internalizes the cultural
values. The cultural values are derived from the cultural beliefs (Miller,
2005)
Conclusion
From the concept of freedom alone shows a difference
between the West and the East. Thus human conduct must be different too. Humans
are the product of their environment or society. The eastern world emphasizes
social relationships and harmony while western culture emphasizes
individuality. Such concepts naturally influence how humans from two different
contexts live life differently. Thus, the application of the concept of freedom
is then contextual. For the Western, freedom is absolute but for the Eastern,
freedom is not absolute. In that case, social context, values, and cultures
define the boundary of freedom.
References
Maguigad, R. B..2005.
Philosophy of Man. Libro Filipino 90-D N. Ramirez Street, Galas, Quezon
City
Montemayor,
Felix M. 1999. Introduction to Philosophy Through the Philosophy of Man
Revised Edition. Navotas Press, Navotas, Metro Manila
Kesson,
Kathleen. 2010. Critical Theory and Holistic Education: Carrying on the
Conversation. http://wwwholisticeducation.com
Schaull,
Richard. 2008. Introduction of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. http://www.paulofreire.com.
Miller,
John. 2005. Holistic Education in a Prophetic Voice in Worldviews,
Educational Orientations and Holistic Education. http://www.holisticeduactor.com
http://www.holisticeducator.com/freedom.htm
http://www.holisticeducator.com/culturalcontext.htm
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