Slaves to Passion: The Sequel

Two weeks ago, we attempted to discuss the extent to which liberty is, in fact, related to the body and one's physical confinement. The leading question was: can one still be a a slave although one is not subject to external constraints? We turned to some passages from Sartre, Hume, Aristotle and Plato (see the PDF in our 'show resources' page).We had a rich philosophical discussion about the role that consciousness, interpretation and culture are related to freedom. This week, we take a second pass at this topic and those passages. The guiding questions are these: 1) can one be enslaved by one's own body and bodily passions; and 2) to what extent does culture and society affect one's freedom? Big questions indeed, but, following Sartre, "nothing ventured, nothing gained".