Sights of Freedom: Between Ancient and Modern Times

Abstract

The idea of liberty was lived and analysed during the whole cultural and ethical development of Ancient history, especially, according to Lima Vaz, in the confrontation between human action and Destine. The concern with the idea of liberty was discussed by important ancient authors such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. Looking back to the past, Benjamin Constant realized another aspect of the Ancient liberty that may not have been understood by the Ancients themselves as liberty, which is the ability to participate collective, but directly, in political life and in the decisions of the polis. Constant believed, also, that the idea of individual liberty was only developed in Modern history; however, the pillars of legal and individual liberty were developed in ancient Rome. To achieve the several aspects of the idea of liberty is necessary to examine the philosophical effort to explain it along historical moments. Therefore, the aim of this work is to investigate how the idea of liberty was understood in ancient times and compare with the design developed by the philosophers of modern times, such as Rousseau, Benjamin Constant and Kant.

Keywords

• Liberdade
• Antiguidade
• Modernidade