What does differentiate man from other animals? Is it the bipedalistic walk? Of course, not. Could it be the stereoscopic eye vision? No, you would surely pooh pooh my position! Indeed, I can foresee a rainbow of answers to it.

Nonetheless, a philosophically sensible answer would mention two specific human faculties: will and reason. At the wake of modern thinking, the French philosopher-mathematician Rene Descartes declared that the material world is substantially different from and inferior to a human being, owing to the rational capacity of humans. Accordingly, the material world is governed by a set of laws that could be discovered and deciphered by a rational mind. Thus, the scientific discoveries would mark the triumph of mind over matter. Underneath this optimism there prevailed the presumption that all the material phenomena were interconnected by virtue of a cause-effect nexus. Two centuries later, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer concluded that there is only one thing that escapes and excels the cause-effect chain of the material world. ‘It’s the human will,’ said he. Given the stimulus or antecedent, the physical world would make a copybook response. Contrarily, freemen choose to respond differently to the same bang. Thus, freedom can be understood as the complete mastery over the space between stimulus and response.

Is it the whole stuff? Doesn’t freedom mean a lot more? By all means, freedom escapes the above said unsophisticated understanding. Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran, in his poem “On Freedom,” dropped the following lines:

“And my heart bled within me;
for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom
becomes a harness to you,
and when you cease to speak of freedom
as a goal and a fulfilment.”

Nay, we enjoy true freedom only when it becomes our essence instead of possession. It is in this sense that the French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre said: ‘man is condemned to be free.’ Instead of saying ‘man is free.’ Sartre says; ‘man is freedom.’ The very title of his great philosophical work “Being and Nothingness” is suggestive of the concept of freedom as the sole human essence. Being and Nothingness makes more sense when it is read as “Being and No essence.” Here, essence is nothing but the sum total of the expectations traditionally placed upon human beings. It could be rational life, civilized behaviour, polished deportments, etc. However, Sartre squarely denies them and emphatically proclaims that the human essence, if there is any, consists in a continuous denial of and perennial rebellion against the above said tailor-made human characteristics. His denial is famously called neantisation or negation. This freedom is buoyant, airy and transparent when set side by side with the opaque and impenetrable ‘traditional human essence.’ Therefore, it is the responsibility of any human being to resist the objectifying and reifying ‘assaults’ by others which occur frequently. It is in this sense that Sartre makes the famous comment in his play ‘No Exit;’ “L’ enfer, c’est les autres” (others are the hell). Human essence is unique in each individual case and is known only when a human life is fully and freely lived. Everywhere in the world, we find this reification assault against human beings. On one hand, when we make definitions of human being such as social animal, political animal, rational animal, etc, we commit the same mistake. On the other hand, when we dispossess others of their ‘essential freedom’ and ration them to a limited amount of freedom, the same onslaught occurs.

Power of negation has got some positive overtones as well. It is also the boldness to stand foursquare against unjust demands placed upon us. Thus, one confidently overcomes the abusive appeals that come under the disguise of ‘obedience.’ German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt famously maintained that “one is responsible for one’s obedience.” Do we seriously think about it today? In this post-factual era, there are people who try high and low to incriminate those who defend justice and to decelerate such uprisings with the perfect alibi of ‘obedience’ and ‘discipline.’ Had discipline and obedience weighed more than justice and mercy, the Nuremberg trials (the trials in which Nazi activists and sympathizers were tried) would have been meaningless! Eichmann and Goering found perfect justifications for their wanton barbarism in their ‘obedience to Fuehrer’! Therefore, freedom as the power of negation is a veto against injustice.

In the history of mankind, freedom is the most precious merchandise ever known. Yes, it has launched thousands of warships and fighter planes in our borders and left a lot of civilizations and empires ablaze. Alas, with a grotesque grin, freedom assures me; you will have them still more!

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