From the Greeks to Rousseau it was always conceived that a man’s freedom is born of a limitation upon what his rulers may exact from him; since Rousseau, and, more particularly, since Hegel, it has been urged that conformity to a code, and even compulsory obedience to it, is the very essence of freedom.
This passage traces the evolution of the concept of freedom from the Greeks to Hegel, highlighting a shift towards viewing conformity as essential to freedom.
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It has been the historic character of persecution always to degrade the persecutor and to strengthen the persecuted by drawing attention to their claims.
He is able, accordingly, to indulge in the twofold luxury not only of preserving his own authority, but also of assisting the persons attacked to enter, if they so choose, the way of truth.
The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…
To deny novelty or grievance a right of expression is a certain, if, indeed, an ultimate, validation of the truth they contain.
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