Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Truth and Freedom

Truth is a condition of freedom, for if a man can preserve his freedom in relation to the objects which thrust themselves on him in the course of his activity as good and desirable, it is only because he is capable of viewing these goods in the light of truth and so adopting an independent attitude to them. Without this faculty man would inevitably be determined by them: these goods would take possession of him and determine totally the character of his actions and the whole direction of his activity. His ability to discover truth gives man the possibility of self-determination, of deciding for himself the character and direction of his own actions, and that is what freedom means.

Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, Willetts, tr. Ignatius (San Francisco: 1981)p. 115.