Freedom and civilization / by Bronislaw Malinowski.

  • Bronisław Malinowski
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Freedom and civilization / by Bronislaw Malinowski. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    118/360 page 100
    run of an activity undertaken by a group of men who with a clear aim in view combine for the task, fit themselves out for action and achieve the desired end. These assumptions are not arbitrary. We are discussing here freedom as a reality of human action; hence all freedoms to quit participation in life, in existence, and in co-operation remain outside the interests of a student of humanity as it actually con¬ tinues its life, achieves its existence through culture, and works on the development of cultures. Yet this very affirmation of ex¬ istence implies in itself those restrictions on freedom which arise from human nature, that is, man’s animal nature. In an earlier section we have already taken a bird’s-eye view of the part played by freedom at the birth and during the growth of culture, and we have seen that the range and the scope of man’s control of his conditions of living have enormously increased throughout the long period of evolution. The qualitative factor of freedom through culture appears from the very beginning. This can be best seen when we compare the basic freedom of survival as this is given to man and animal respectively. It will be well to define the concept of freedom with reference to animal behavior. In its essence, animal freedom hinges on the freedom of survival. Under conditions of nature the various species de¬ velop their anatomical and physiological equipments in adapta* tion to the environment, through natural selection and other mechanisms of evolutionary adjustment. We can say that an animal is free when through the full exercise of its specific adaptive activities it can satisfy its biological needs. This ob¬ viously means first and foremost that the animal can obtain from the environment and within its environment the satisfaction of hunger, thirst, sex, and rest. It also means that it can protect itself from dangers, as well as attack other organisms within its habitat. The problem of animal freedom thus involves the organ-
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3