HW 2

For the second part of this lecture, Banarch describes what freedom is. I think he has divided it into two different types of freedoms, mental freedoms and physical freedoms. For the first part he describes physical freedoms with the idea of existence over essence. Sartre is quoted in the lecture saying “If existence really does precede essence, there is no explaining things away by reference to a fixed and given human nature.  In other words, there is no determinism, man is free, man is freedom.” I think Satre was saying that god, who he sees as an artisan since he is known as the creator of everything living, created all life but made us capable of developing our own forms of essence there for we are truly free. I agree with this statement. Who better to determine what's bad or good then ourselves? However, I also disagree. All living things should have certain essence in their life. I feel the essence is common sense and morals since these are things that come naturally in a humans life. We usually don’t know when we develop these things, it feels as if we were born with them. I think we get them from the surroundings we were raised in for example, part of my morals revolve around the ten commandments since I was raised in a Christian house. However in that quote, I think Satre is saying that if the significance of existence surpasses essence, then we are truly free and can’t be held down by things like morals or the ‘right” way of living life, we are all simply free human beings. In this society, the ideas of what's “bad” and what's “good” can’t really be made up by ourselves, we are taught what they are from law systems and authority figures. I disagree that the idea of existence outweighing essence is what our freedoms are because there will always be someone who says otherwise.

    Another point Banarch makes is that we are in complete control of our bodies, a point I see as mental freedom. We can’t hide behind things we are scared of doing because we are actually fully capable of doing them. He says “I am not identical with any of the externally determined images on my mental TV screen (our points of view).   I am forever beyond the reach of their determinations within the island of my subjectivity.[1]  Even if I were a puppet, my body and its actions completely controlled by some malevolent master, what I am, my mind's eye would still be free and untouched”. I feel the “mental TV screen” represents our eyes and our brains. Our eyes control what we see in this world and our brains determine how we react to these things. We are free to develop our own ideas, which is something that can not be taken away from us. I would have to agree with this statement. In many ways, I feel that mental freedom’s are the only ones we have. We can think anything we want without judgement or punishments because they are ours and ours alone, but the way we use this power however is a different story. There are some people who use this power to its full potential and are very open minded, developing lots of far fetched ideas and thoughts about life. But then there are also people who believe anything they hear, not thinking for themselves and just going with the crowd. This leads me to believe that there are two types of people in this world, leaders and followers. Leaders live the life Banarch and Satre believe in but followers defy these ideas by not having any original thoughts at all. A life where you can “still be free to rebel against (your) master or make whatever (you) wished of the situation.  They can do what they want to my body, manipulate the objects or pictures of me on my mental TV screen, but they can never touch or control the real me.  The self within its island of subjectivity is radically free in virtue of its radical individuality.”is the life for someone who is truly an individual, but  followers don't show much creativity at all and stay bonded to their “masters”, not using their brain to their full potentials.