Freedom and Organization

Abstract

From p. 1:

"I shall tentatively define freedom as the capacity to act on the basis of one's own considered judgment. I shall define organization as a requirement to act in relation to mutually understood rules that enable individuals to pursue opportunities subject to limits. Human beings confront the circumstance that organization is necessary to freedom and, at the same time, constitutes a fundamental threat to freedom. A fundamental tension must necessarily exist between freedom and organization. It is incumbent upon human beings to understand some of the conditions that are associated with the necessary tensions between freedom and organization and learn to live with them.

In addressing these issues, I shall turn first to the question of why does the problem of freedom arise; second, why is organization necessary to freedom; third, why is organization a threat to freedom; fourth, can freedom and organization be reconciled; and finally, why must these tensions necessarily remain? My analysis will necessarily be a partial and limited one."