INSTRUCTIONS: We have spent a good deal of time this semester discussing the idea of freedom. UpOn reflection, what understanding of freedom is most persuasive to you? Present your preferred conception of freedom, outlining and responding to criticisms of it. In constructing your answer, please refer to at least three thinker’s conceptions of freedom (and at least one of these must be Rousseau, Hegel, or Marx)This paper is not a research essay, it is a thought piece. No additional texts or articles arerequired.Footnotes are the required form of citation. You are encouraged to be brief in your use of quotesfrom the text and liberal in citations. If you feel that you must quote a longer passage to properlyexplicate a point you must indent (ten spaces) and single-space the citation if it is longer than twonormal lines of text.ONLY SOURCES SHOULD BE:Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Norton)G. Hegel, Outlines of the Philosophy of Right (Oxford)Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Basic Political Writings Second Edition (Hackett)HERE IS MY THESIS (PLEASE BASE PAPER OFF OF THIS): When it comes to the conception of freedom, and which thinker I find most persuasive, I would have to choose Hegel. Where Rousseau looks at freedom as having the say to create one’s own laws, or owning property, Hegel looks further past physical freedoms and into the actual mind. The same goes for Hobbes, though he makes valid arguments identifying freedom with owning one’s own labor or property, he also doesn’t touch enough on the freedom of mind which Hegel does in my opinion. One of the definitions Hegel has of freedom is when the “mind is free”, something I find very important. Hegel says “it is solely by risking life, that freedom is obtained”. In some ways living under another’s rule or authority or servitude towards them, is not living at all, so risking one’s life for the possibility of reaching freedom, even if it isn’t achieved, is living a life far more meaningful than one twice the length under servitude or rule.
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