Concept of freedom from the socialist perspectives of the universal basic income

Abstract

"Freedom" has always been a problem in Metaphysics. Humanity has been searching and fighting for it for a long time. It is not certain that freedom really exists. Surprisingly, restriction, as a contradiction of freedom, makes it possibly exist. "We are free," does not seem to be completed until we state where or what we are free from. There are two main types of freedom under consideration in this study: positive and negative freedoms. Positive freedom is freedom to do what one wants to do. This type of freedom is internal freedom, whereas another type of freedom, negative freedom, is external freedom. Negative freedom is freedom from limitations. Humans are really free when they are both positively and negatively free. That is, one can do what he wants to do without anything or anyone stopping him from doing so. That is the real freedom he has. Biopolitics and economic limitations are the main freedom constraints people are confronted with today. People cannot be really free with these conditions and to unlock them we need to create tools to do so. In this study, the Universal Basic Income is a selected tool for unlocking to the real freedom. Eventually, the result shows that it is possible for the Universal Basic Income to create freedom for people in society. As this freedom is not naturally born but created, thus, it is "synthetic freedom."