There is an intimate relationship between freedom and responsibility, because responsibility assumes that the individual can have freedom of action and decision. Therefore, freedom necessarily leads to responsibility.
Freedom is the power of choice that individuals have in society, while responsibility is the attitude of the person to respond for the actions he chooses freely.
They are two parallel concepts that, at the same time, go hand in hand, because one leads to the other. This means that freedom can become a subject of responsibility. People are responsible for their actions in principle, because they decide on them and are their cause.
To analyze how the two concepts are related, it is convenient to be clear about their meaning.
What is freedom?
The dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy (DRAE) offers the following definition of the term freedom:
It is the"natural faculty that man has to act in one way or another, and not to act, so he is responsible for his actions."
But this freedom is not absolute, because generally the person is conditioned by other elements that regulate their performance, such as coercion, fear, violence, ignorance, culture, social norms and conventions, psychic disorders, among others.
The human being enjoys several types of freedom:
Internal freedom or free will
It is the choice that the individual makes when deciding with self-determination between good and bad.
Freedom of action or external action
It is the freedom of action, without impediments or physical, social, cultural, economic or legal constraints.
What is the responsibility?
The DRAE also defines responsibility in two senses. In response to an unlawful conduct, which would be"debt, obligation to repair and satisfy, by itself or by another person, as a result of a crime, fault or other legal cause."
In a second sense, it defines it as a response to a given action; that is, the"existing capacity in every active subject of law to recognize and accept the consequences of a freely realized fact."
Every person is immersed in a circle of responsibility to which he must respond for his actions. This circle is composed of the person himself, his family, the social group or work and society.
Freedom and responsibility
As we can see, the concepts of freedom and responsibility are closely related. For a person to be responsible for his actions, it is indispensable that he can have freedom of action, with no limitations other than his own conscience and moral values.
Therefore, it is considered that the mentally ill, children, and animals are not responsible for their actions, because they do not have full consciousness or lack the use of reason.
The Irish writer George Bernard Shaw summed up the relationship of both concepts of life in one sentence:"Freedom means responsibility. That is why most men fear him."
For his part, the Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater points out that:"We are not free to choose what happens to us", or what we are or have as people (ugly, beautiful, poor, rich, sick), but" to what happens to us in such and such a way,"either by obeying or through resignation.
In summary, it can be affirmed that in the absence of individual freedom there is no responsibility, nor is it possible to preserve freedom without responsibility, derived from individual moral regulations and from the Law itself.
References
- Stahl, Bernd Carsten. Responsible Management of Information Systems. The Montfort University, UK. Idea Group Publishing, 2004. Retrieved from books.google.co.
- Russel, Paul. Freedom & Moral Sentiment. Oxford University Press, 1995. GoogleBooks
- Lee, Dwight R. Liberty and Individual Responsibility. Fundation for economic education. Consulted from fee.org
- Responsibility and Freedom. Digital Public School. University of the Punta. Retrieved on October 3, 2007 from contentsdigitales.ulp.edu.ar
- Freedom. Consulted from dle.rae.es
- A Republic, If You Can Keep It. Consulted by governingprinciples.wordpress.com
- Freedom and Responsibility. Consulted from ucsc.cl