Hürriyet kavramı ve batı dünyasındaki gelişimi

Abstract

This article, "The Concept of Freedom and its Development in the Western World", has examined and clarified further the phases, in which the concept of freedom has developed throughout history. In doing so, the article has first investigated the concepts of "human", "right", and "freedom". The study has ascertained an undeniable fact that human being as a social creature has certain rights and should have freedom. As a result, it has been observed that right and freedom are the most fundamental values human being has ever possessed. The article has explored in detail the historical development of freedom in the Western World with reference to the views and ideas of antique, medieval, modern and contemporary intellectuals. For the sociological point of view, freedom is an avoidable need of the whole human beings. In this respect, the system of values is still of vital importance for human beings even today, so that many people, as before, go through a lot of difficulties and struggle enormously to defend freedom intact.