Freedom is a state of self-determination of a subject who chooses, relying on his spirit, goals, and means of activity and thus acts as a conscious and responsible creator. The more powerful a person is, the wider his or her possibilities are, the greater the good or bad consequences of his or her choice, the greater his or her "authorship" in the world and, consequently, responsibility.
The value of freedom lies in the fact that it contains the possibility of purposeful development of the good. From a humanist perspective, freedom is seen as a characteristic of the human condition of life.
The measure of freedom is determined by how diverse and ordered are the values accepted by man, high priorities, great are the internal and external possibilities of choice of goals and means of their implementation, how he achieves harmony with himself, with other people, the natural world, being in general. The level of freedom largely depends on the attitude to it as a value: freedom-loving, determination to self-determination, to the expansion of responsibility - contribute to the growth of freedom. Thinkers who philosophize in the mainstream of existentialism (Pascal, Kierre Kegor, Dostoevsky, Berdyaev, Heidegger, Sartre, etc.), consider freedom primarily as a responsibility, an unfailing concern for human existence. Freedom is both the basis of human dignity and a heavy burden, which can only be rid of by giving up on oneself, of the true solution of one's life task (Fromm).
A distinction is made between negative and positive freedom. Negative - "freedom from" - is independence from foreign natural, social or other forces, the absence of external, suppressing the expression of will, coercion. This freedom is achieved through the change of external circumstances (in the struggle for freedom, independence, independence) or through changes in the internal mood (the fight against self, self-limitation, rejection of desires and intentions that alienate from the higher goals). Thus, in the concept of human rights - the leading one, starting from the New Age, in Western humanitarian thought, the indispensable belonging of freedom is the unity of personal independence and self-limitation, manifested in the indivisibility of rights and duties of a person. "Freedom consists in the possibility to do everything that does not cause harm to others. The exercise of the natural rights of every human being meets only those limits which ensure to other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights" ("Declaration of Human and Civil Rights", 1789). The principle of equal freedom (sovereignty) of individuals is organically linked to the principles of individual self-determination and non-violence. There is another interpretation of negative (negative) freedom as a choice of anything, including evil. However, within the framework of the classical tradition of European philosophy (ancient, medieval-Christian, and new European) such a choice refers not to freedom, but arbitrariness. Kant, for example, considers only the will for good free. Positive - "freedom for" - is self-fulfillment through the development of the world: the transformation of unfavorable (alien or alienated) circumstances into favorable (their own), increasing diversity and integrity of personal existence. In this spirit, the ideal of Enlightenment is built - the free development of everyone as a condition for the free development of all. Without "freedom from", "freedom for" is unattainable.
Freedom consists of internal, where the main thing is freedom of will (self-determination, the autonomy of will), and external - freedom of action (expression of will, the realization of will). Freedom is composed of the interaction of many factors, so there is a question of its conditionality, the attitude to necessity. The most controversial is the problem of freedom of will, which is especially acute in the theistic teachings when comprehending the relationship between the Divine and human will. Determinists, who defend the ideas about the causal conditioning of human intentions and actions, understand freedom as following some external, about human will, a necessity. Some philosophers deny freedom of will, but not freedom of action, to explain how something can be blamed or deserved by a human being. The realization that actions are divided into good and bad, that there are norms, the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of which is encouraged or condemned, influences the will, persuading it in a certain direction. A person is responsible (moral, legal, etc.) for his actions for the execution of the will. The extreme manifestation of determinism - fatalism (Calvin, Laplace) - is the notion that all events are predestined (by fate, divine will, and a chain of natural causes) to be rigid and without a chance - negates freedom itself.