What is freedom? 

I remember in my late teens, long before I ever read the Philosophy of Freedom, debating with a friend whether free will existed.  He insisted that it did not, I insisted that it did.  Both of us were convinced of our own points of view, and both of us still believed we were right at the end of our debate.

This chapter challenges me to clarify for myself what I mean by "freedom".  Through a series of apparently logical challenges to the idea of freedom which are nevertheless shown to be one-sided, I am carried towards a realisation that the crux of the matter lies in whether reasons for action of which I am fully conscious compel me in the same sense as reasons for action of which I am not fully conscious.

This then leads to a realisation that human knowledge and thinking and, most importantly, "the one who acts out of knowledge" must be a primary focus of the search for the true nature of freedom.  Unless I can regain knowledge of this one who is torn into two parts (knower and doer) by my whole approach to the problem of freedom, I will be forever circling around the periphery of the question, caught in apparently logical paradoxes that do not do justice to the highest things that can come to expression in the human being.

Turning and turning
Like a falcon in the blue,
Cruel talons of thought tearing
Swallow-hopes of freedom in two.
Gaze that turns earthward
As sunset looms;
Hawk of thought, come inward -
Your Father's mansion has many rooms.
Having seen and done many things
Will you now learn of your wings?