Freedom is a word that conjures images of a person standing up for what they believe in, free to express their views without fear. It’s a word that’s been around for centuries, but it’s also one that’s become more relevant than ever in these uncertain times.
Isaiah Berlin, in his famous essay, “The Problem of Liberty,” coined two concepts of freedom, which can be understood as negative and positive. In the first case, liberty is conceived as the absence of obstacles or restrictions to action (i.e., coercion, interference or constraints from others), whereas in the second, it is a concept of the capacity to exercise free will or the power to pursue an end of choice.
When we talk about freedom, it’s easy to get confused with all the different ideas people have of what it means to be free. For example, the United States Constitution says that we have the right to freedom of speech and expression, which is the right to say what you want and to write it, but it doesn’t guarantee that everyone else will agree with it.
This is why it’s so important to understand what exactly freedom is. If we don’t know what freedom is, it’s likely that we’ll think that it’s something we can take for granted and forget about.
The truth is that the best definition of freedom doesn’t even have to be written down – it can come from simply living life. It can come from a child’s first words, the first steps they take on a bike, or the smile that they put on their face.
It can also come from the sense of control that we have over our own lives. This is what Isaiah Berlin calls positive liberty, the ability to exercise free will or to act in a manner that’s in our own interests, and it’s this that we most value.
Having this sort of freedom doesn’t mean that we don’t have to work for it. The key is to make it a habit. It can be a tough thing to do, but by setting up recurring blocks and becoming more disciplined you’ll be able to stay focused on your goals while blocking distracting apps and websites.
With that in mind, Freedom offers a variety of tools to help you block distractions so you can focus on the things that matter most. You can start sessions on-the-fly or schedule them to repeat daily or weekly, and it’s easy to sync your block sessions across all of your devices.
Once you’ve set up your account, you can log in to your dashboard to set up and manage your block sessions. There are preset block lists for popular websites and apps, but you can also create your own if you prefer. The app also comes with a handy feature that allows you to lock your sessions so they can’t be accessed while you’re away from the computer.