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Freedom
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What is Freedom?

Freedom is one of the most foundational concepts in political and governmental thought, making it a natural subject for courses in political science, civics, history, and social theory. Its academic interest lies in the tension between individual liberty and collective authority — between what a person claims as a right and what a society or government chooses to regulate or restrict. Works like Martin Luther's On the Freedom of a Christian and narratives like Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl show that freedom carries distinct meanings across religious, legal, and personal contexts, and those layered meanings give the topic lasting intellectual depth.

Student papers on this topic approach freedom from strikingly varied angles. Some engage in literary and textual analysis, examining how freedom is pursued or denied in specific narratives, including those tied to slavery and immigrant experience. Others take a policy or argumentative stance, debating issues like school uniform requirements as questions of individual rights versus institutional control. Historical case studies, such as the My Lai massacre, frame freedom in terms of governmental power and accountability, while more personal or creative pieces explore freedom as an abstract value tied to identity, adolescence, and social belonging.

A strong essay on freedom requires a precise, focused thesis rather than a broad claim that "freedom is important." The most persuasive papers define which form of freedom they are analyzing — civil, personal, political, or spiritual — and anchor arguments in specific evidence such as legal frameworks, primary texts, or documented historical events. The most common pitfall is treating freedom as self-evidently positive without examining the competing rights or societal structures that complicate it.

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Paper Undergraduate
Play's role in early childhood literacy development and learning
Play has been pushed out of the curriculum by a range of factors, including larger class sizes and a focus on standardization of testing and curricula that have reached all the way down to the youngest students. Play has also been marginalized by elementary teachers who in the last generation began substituting words like ‘explore' or ‘discover' for play. This substitution has been made in an attempt to make literacy and math activities more exciting for students. The traditional classrooms, with their spacious rooms, unlimited time for unstructured art, music, dance, and freedom to take time to practice and improve social skills, have all disappeared. The focus now is on math and literacy instruction.
Essay Doctorate
John Stuart Mill's arguments for the intrinsic value of personal liberty
Mill proposes two different concepts of the nature of liberty that substantiates his argument that society should not impose upon the the freedom of the individual. In an instrumental sense, the author believes there are practical uses of freedom that do not concern society. However, his intrinsic arguments for liberty are more compelling.
Essay Undergraduate
Gandhi's satyagraha and swaraj in Indian independence
Mahatma Gandhi is still one of the most influential spiritual and political leaders ever to have made his presence known to the world. Through his fight for independence using non-violent resistance, Gandhi spread the…
Research Paper Doctorate
Rousseau and Burke's conflicting philosophies on civil society
Through the years, civil society and the rights of man have come to know many things. Many philosophers have helped lay the groundwork for how we govern ourselves today. We have words like democracy, autocracy,…
Research Paper Doctorate
Misogyny and passion in Jane Campion's The Piano
I'd like to start this essay out by saying that I agree with Bell Hook's critical examination of the Piano. I agree that misogyny and sexism are the central themes in the movie, although I have to say that the movie…
Research Paper Doctorate
Adolf Loos's critique of ornament and modern functionalism
¶ … 1809, by Adolf Loos and raised numerous uprisings at that time. In this article Loos comments that the human beings go through all the phases of development from his childhood to his youth.
Essay Doctorate
Postmodernism as a cultural and intellectual movement from the late 1960s
This paper is about postmodernism, the period from the mid 1960s to about the late 1980s. In this time many things changed in the world, including scientific ideas, music, architecture, civil rights issues, and gender issues including second wave feminism. The paper also discussed modernism and consumerism, both as precursor and subsequent philosophies.
Paper Doctorate
Materialism and redemption in Tolstoy and Chekhov
This paper discuses in regard to several short stories and essays related to human nature, the effect that colonialism has had on it, and the general attitudes that people are likely to express in particular circumstances. The essay also speaks about present-day conditions in Syria and provides a short story focused on the importance (or unimportance)of telling the truth.
Thesis Masters
The ethics of keeping animals in zoos for conservation
This essay examines the ethics of keeping animals in zoos. By tracing the history of zoos and animal welfare, it becomes clear that while zoos are necessary for protecting endangered species, common metrics for considering animal welfare are not sufficient. By considering abnormal behavior, freedom, and dignity alongside traditional metrics of animal welfare, zoos can continue their important work while ensuring that this work progresses in an ethical way.
Paper Doctorate
Women factory workers and the Rosie the Riveter propaganda campaign
Rosie the Riveter "Over 6 million women who had never worked for wages before took jobs, married women's labor force participation doubled, and unions gained 2.2 million women in a matter of 4 years. Not all of this was achieved without resistance, however. At the outset, most male managers were reluctant to employ women in all aspects of the defense industry, citing…‘the lack of adequate toilet facilities' as an excuse for not hiring women" (Barker-Benfield, et al, 1998) Introduction After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan and the country launched a massive war effort – sending millions of men to military training camps and building factories to produce planes, tanks, military vehicles, ships, and weapons. As a result of men leaving their jobs there was a need for women to take the places of the men who had to fight the war. This paper delves into the jobs those women were assigned to, including the women who worked in factories in and around Paterson, New Jersey. This paper also focuses on other issues related to women and the war effort at home during World War II.