The Paradox of Freedom
by Thomas S. Buchanan
Freedom is the name of virtue; Slavery, of vice. . . . None is a slave whose acts are free.
—Epictetus
For today’s Christian or anyone seeking to live a moral life, our modern society can be a discouraging place. Over the past seventy or so years, we have witnessed the development of a mentality which now pervades our society and which, I believe, threatens the moral and intellectual underpinnings of our civilization. Yet, the threat itself is well disguised. It comes wrapped in a value very near and dear to the heart of most of us. More accurately, it is a perversion of an ideal to which we all subscribe. Quite simply, the problem lies in our modern understanding, or rather, misunderstanding of freedom.
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Thomas S. Buchanan is the George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware. He has studied at UCSD, Northwestern University, and MIT, and has held visiting professorships at the University of Western Australia and the University of Aix-Marseille. He has served as department chairman, deputy dean, and institute director, president of the American Society of Biomechanics, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Biomechanics. He is on the Board of Trustees of Saint Katherine College, the editorial board of Touchstone, and the board of The Fellowship of St. James.
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