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On the boundaries of personal freedom: what if my exercise of freedom bothers someone? (lemy.lol)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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When speaking about personal freedom and it's boundaries, I take the position of: every person must have all the freedom to do whatever they would like, until it starts to harm others or limit their freedoms.

I believe this to also be the most common position by proponents of freedom.

So this means I cannot say I have the freedom to beat someone, for example, as that is harming them and limiting their own freedoms.

Now this is an obvious example, but there are a lot of murky ones. For example:

  • Do I have the freedom to use some power tools in my house if it bothers my neighbor?
  • Do I have the freedom to smoke in the city if it bothers people?
  • Do I have the freedom to just walk completely naked in a busy city? What if I am very unpleasant to look at? What if many people do like I do and it just makes the city less pleasant to walk through?
  • Do I have the freedom to be entirely naked and stand on a public sidewalk but just next to a storefront? Maybe the owner doesn't care, except I drive away their customers because they care
  • Do I have the freedom to plant a tree in my yard that suddenly takes away sunlight from neighbor? Technically it's my house!

"the freedom to walk in my neighborhood without having to hear power tools" and "the freedom to use power tools" seem to be in opposition.

I think many people will have straight answers for these. I'm not looking for answers. I'm looking for a reasonable general guideline. When are situations like these considered to be within my rights to personal freedom, and when are they outside of personal freedom or infringing on freedoms of others?

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

There goes freedom of association then.

this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
1 points (66.7% liked)

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