The calamities of 2020 raise a lot of issues about the concept of freedom. While people who refuse to wear masks and practice social distancing use freedom as their excuse, African Americans have their rights trampled on by the police. This reflects the two extremes of freedom: the former, having too much freedom, doesn’t know the limit, while the latter’s freedom is limited. Although it’s true that we have complete freedom over ourselves, in a society we also have to respect the freedom of others. Thus, in order to address our societal problems, we need to answer two questions: How much freedom is enough? And, how to ensure enough freedom for everyone? Over the last few centuries, these two questions have been a vibrant topic of discussion in philosophy, literature, and politics. With this mind map, I hope to show how the great thinkers address the issues of freedom, from which we can draw some lessons that will help us to resolve our own problems.
