is there more than one type or definition of freedom?

[katia]

what does freedom mean to you and how do you define it? can there be freedom of and freedom from? for example, freedom of speech and freedom from harassment.

[Nero]

Depends on one's definition of harassment. Physical or threatening harrassment is different than speech.
Freedom of speech is precious. And freedom of speech should mean exactly that.  I don't believe in speech taboos. The way the good ol US of A is headed, freedom of speech will soon be a joke.

[Jeannette]

Both your examples would be considered personal rights. I believe freedom is only a relative term, some of us have relatively more freedom than others but none of us are entirely free to do and say and live as we choose without any outside interference.

[lisagurl]

All freedoms come with responsibilities.

[Hazumu]

YES!!

Oh Yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh YESS!!!

There are definitely more than on definition of the word FREEDOM.

In George Lakoff's Editorial from the Boston Globe, Tuesday, July 4, 2006 (preserved at the Rockridge Institute website, ) he writes:

Progressives: There should be a freedom to marry. The government should not be able to decide who can marry who.
      Conservatives: "Freely elected" government officials should determine who can marry who. That's what a "free country" means.

      Progressives: Social security, the minimum wage, universal health care, college for all are ways to guarantee freedom from want.
      Conservatives: Giving people things they haven't earned creates dependency and robs people of their freedom.

      Progressives: The 45 million working people who can't afford health care cannot all pull themselves up by their bootstraps. An economy that drives down wages to increase investor profits creates a cheap labor trap. The trap works against freedom from want.
      Conservatives: Economic liberty comes through the free market ; government gets in the way: government works against economic liberty in four ways: regulation, workers' rights, taxes, and class action lawsuits.

      Progressives: Freedom of religion includes freedom from having a religion imposed on you.
      Conservatives: Freedom to practice religion for fundamentalist evangelicals means spreading the good news of the truth of the gospel, which implies school prayer, "under God" in the Pledge, the Ten Commandments in courthouses, and the teaching of Intelligent Design.

      Progressives: The President's spying on citizens without a warrant is a violation of freedom.
      Conservatives: The President is just doing his duty to preserve our freedom.

His book, Whose Freedom?, is an exhaustive study of the contested definitions of the word 'freedom'.

And, it's a very good read!

Karen

[NickSister]

From an outside observer it seems America is so obsessed with freedom that individuals have very little personal freedom.

Not sure how I would define freedom.
Freedom for me is freedom to be me without risk of hate, violence or crime. Freedom from the threat of violence. Freedom from the risk of starvation. Freedom from others breaking the laws that are there for the good of everyone, that is if the law is a good law which is a subjective thing...If I was free nobody would speed, or drink and drive, or carry weapons, or beat their kids, or kill their partners. I would have freedom to choose a career, partner (as long as they choose me too), procreate at least once, co-habitate with my pets, own my own property,  ...