Alicia asked:

What are the major differences between internal and external freedom? Why is it sometimes hard to
differentiate between the two?

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Internally, we have the freedom of thought and reason, the freedom to deliberate and decide.
However, there are restrictions on decisions, choices and desires which come from external facts so
we are not always free to act as we want.

Although our desires and choices are internal in the sense that they issue from us and no-one can
desire or choose for us, the satisfaction of desires can prove difficult or impossible when the means
are not available. Desires may arise freely internally but we do not have the freedom to satisfy them
whenever we want to so the ability to satisfy our desires cannot be regarded as entirely free. The
same is true for choices. There may be a range of choices, but what we really want may not be an
available option. An example of lack of freedom of choice is the "money or your life" situation. You
cannot choose that the person making the threat should take your life and keep the money, because
if he kills you he gets the money anyway. But while external circumstances limit your choice in this
situation, there is still a sense in which you choose. The person who makes the threat may be
understood as forcing the obvious choice upon you, but it is still you who chooses.

Internal freedom is freedom as a power which belongs to you and which you exercise even when
compelled. You may hand over your money unwillingly in the sense that you don't want to, but you
have to do it from choice or free will in another sense because the action is performed by you.

However, there are other external factors which affect freedom of choice and desire. If we understand
by external factors those forces which limit or restrict freedom, there exists facts about your
background and character, as well as unconscious forces. These facts are internal in the sense that
they are facts about your person but because they have an affect on, or determine, the nature of your
desires and the kind of choices you make, these facts also restrain inner freedom. Some things you
cannot choose.

So we are free sometimes and in some ways. Internal freedom is the power to choose and the ability
to desire, in addition to the power to be able to think.

Rachel Browne