a.k.a. freedom, self-determination, self-government, eleutheria/ἐλευθερία

A virtuous person wants to be free to practice the virtues and not be enslaved, indebted, obligated, addicted, etc. in a way that would prevent them from doing so.

Complementary virtues¶

• independence
• intellectual autonomy

Contrasting vices¶

• addiction / compulsivity
• bad faith
• controlling (not respecting liberty in others)
• slavishness

Virtues possibly in tension¶

• selflessness
• submission

How to acquire or strengthen it¶

TBD

Notes and links¶

• Existentialism is centered on recognizing and coping with the demands of your freedom.
• Wikipedia policy "Ignore all rules"

Mentioned elsewhere¶

TBD

Inspirational quotes¶

• “Virtue acts not through compulsion.” ―Seneca
• “No slavery is more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.” ―Seneca
• “Avoid, all thou canst, being entrusted; but do thy utmost to discharge the trust thou undertakest; for carelessness is injurious, if not unjust.” ―William Penn
• “There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the laws of matter at and for our convenience, but a successful life knows no law. It is an unfortunate discovery certainly, that of a law which binds us where we did not know before that we were bound. Live free, child of the mist—and with respect to knowledge we are all children of the mist. The man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the law-maker.” —Thoreau (Walking). This reminds me of the existentialist point of view that you can never in good faith blame a law that commands you, but you must at all times rely on your freedom and confront the fact that you chose whatever you did. Is liberty then a virtue, or just a raw fact we have to work with? Maybe “acknowledgment of liberty” is the virtue, in existentialist terms.
• Another Thoreau quote: "The stern command is—move or ye shall be moved—be the master of your own action—or you shall unawares become the tool of the meanest slave. Any can command him who doth not command himself. Let men be men & stones be stones and we shall see if majorities do rule.

“My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared by the words of your mouth.
So do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion—
and give your neighbor no rest!
Allow no sleep to your eyes,
no slumber to your eyelids.
Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.” ―_Proverbs_ 6:1-5

• “I fore­see that if my wants should be much in­creased, the la­bor re­quired to sup­ply them would be­come a drudg­ery. If I should sell both my fore­noons and af­ter­noons to so­ci­e­ty, as most ap­pear to do, I am sure that for me there would be noth­ing left worth liv­ing for. I trust that I shall nev­er thus sell my birth­right for a mess of pot­tage.” ―Thoreau
• “Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George and con­tin­ue the slaves of King Prej­u­dice? What is it to be born free and not to live free? What is the val­ue of any po­lit­i­cal free­dom, but as a means to mor­al free­dom? Is it a free­dom to be slaves, or a free­dom to be free, of which we boast? We are a na­tion of pol­i­ti­cians, con­cerned about the out­most de­fenc­es on­ly of free­dom. It is our chil­dren’s chil­dren who may per­chance be real­ly free. We tax our­selves un­just­ly. There is a part of us which is not rep­re­sent­ed. It is tax­a­tion with­out rep­re­sen­ta­tion. We quar­ter troops, we quar­ter fools and cat­tle of all sorts up­on our­selves. We quar­ter our gross bod­ies on our poor souls, till the form­er eat up all the lat­ter’s sub­stance.” ―Thoreau again