Freedom

Freedom is a remarkably imprecise word that can refer to:

• Political freedom is the absence of political restraints, particularly with respect to speech, religious practice, and the press.

• not being in prison, not (in particular, no longer) the victim of false imprisonment

• economic freedom, i.e., having choices, not being subject to very many natural or institutional constraints. A monopolistic firm has more freedom to set prices than does a firm in a perfectly competitive market. One with more net worth has more freedom than one without any. See economic power.

• being not in any relationship (be it a romantic relationship or a cooperative, for example), free to do what one wants, including starting a new relationship or having relationship tests (like one-night-stands, casual physical intimacy, etc).

• coming of age and leaving one's parents' home

• freedom of choice i.e. free will

• the absence of interactions in physics; for example, asymptotic freedom discovered by David Gross, David Politzer, and Frank Wilczek

For the shorter term, being free also means having holidays, weekend, finished work for the day, having a break.

It is also the name of a British newspaper, an album by Neil Young, two otherwise unrelated songs by Richie Havens and Rage Against the Machine, and small towns in New York, New Hampshire and Wyoming.

Political philosopher Gerald MacCallum designed the following concept of freedom, allowing for its 'fleshing out' into many different conceptions: "X is free/not free from Y to do/not do/become/not become Z"

de:Freiheit eo:Libereco pt:Liberdade fr:liberté it:libertà ja:自由 la:Libertas nl:Vrijheid simple:Freedom sv:Frihet zh:自由