Philosophy of Liberty 101

I am starting a new series of article to act as an introduction to the ideas of freedom. My reasons for doing this is selfish. One, this process is meant as a way for me to validate my thoughts and work through any personal inconsistencies that I may have in my thinking. Two, I want to use this as a guide for teaching my children and family these concepts. Three, when I have discussions about these topics with people they ask for more information. I have not been able to find a single accessible source to assist in this. Instead, I have to send them to an extensive and fragmented list of references. Many of these sources are very good but it can be overwhelming. Discouraged, they typically go no further.

So, I have some goals for this project:

• Keep it simple. I want it to be conversational and easy for anyone to follow. While some of the topics might be complex, my goal is to distill it down to the core elements. To help keep it simple, I am planning on spreading the discussion over many individual posts.
• Be thorough. I want to cover as much as I can. And, I want to attempt to counter alternative arguments. The goal is to leave no gaps whenever possible.
• Be consistent. The goal overlaps a bit with the first two. However, the focus here is to eliminate contradictions in the ideas and to be as logical as possible.
• Have empathy. I want to be kind and understanding in my writing. First and foremost it means to avoid ad hominem. But, it also means I need to be aware that some of these concepts may be difficult to grasp. So, patience is another aspect that I intend to employ.

I'd also add that most of these thoughts will not entirely be my own. These topics have been written about at length by many authors. While I intend to sprinkle in my thoughts and I do not intend to plagiarize anyone much of this is going to be a rehash. That is the point; I want to compile it all together in one place. That said, if you've heard it all before, then this probably will not be of much interest. Regardless, I hope that this can be a resource for others.

Finally, this specific post is going to act as the reference for all of the others. So, as time goes, I will add links to the related posts here.