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b_b  ·  3782 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Social Freedom

I take a little issue with your assertion that "I live in a free country" is to assert nothing. Your argument is less a philosophical one and more a semantic one. Most people would agree that the statement "I live in a free country" means that one lives in a country in which a certain set of standards are met, even if some specifics change. Among those standards are 1) that one can express one's thoughts freely without threat of persecution; and 2) that rule of law is supreme so that the government can't arbitrarily violate citizens' lawful rights. This is freedom by definition. If you're arguing that definitions don't matter unless we understand the context in which the word is used, then really what you're doing is basic linguistics. Of course, Wittgenstein argued that all philosophy is a critique of language, so maybe I'm the one making the semantic argument. But nonetheless my main point is that we can't argue about any subject unless we understand what words mean in this or that context.