see Emotion.
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For freedom of mind means mental power capable of independent exercise, emancipated form the leading strings of others... (Chap. 5, (section)2)
Genuine freedom ... is intellectual; it rests in the trained power of thought, in ability to "turn things over," to look at matters deliberately, to judge whether the amount and kind of evidence requisite for decision is at hand, and if not, to tell where and how to seek such evidence. If a man's actions are not guided by thoughtful conclusions, then they are guided by inconsiderate impulse, unbalanced appetite, caprice, or the circumstances of the moment. (Chap. 5, (section)2)
(John Dewey: How we Think, Prometheus Books 1991)
...and every action, irrespective of the time-relation
in which it stands with other phenomena, is the immediate effect of
the intelligible character of pure reason, which, consequently, enjoys
freedom of action, and is not dynamically determined either by
internal or external preceding conditions. This freedom must not be
described, in a merely negative manner, as independence of empirical
conditions, for in this case the faculty of reason would cease to be a
cause of phenomena; but it must be regarded, positively, as a
faculty which can spontaneously originate a series of events. At the
same time, it must not be supposed that any beginning can take place
in reason; on the contrary, reason, as the unconditioned condition
of all action of the will, admits of no time-conditions, although
its effect does really begin in a series of phenomena- a beginning
which is not, however, absolutely primal.
(Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, B581, cf. B562)
The freedom of Mind is not the freedom of choice as commonly believed. The freedom of Mind is the freedom to think. If our thinking becomes infinite or is expanded to infinity, we are truly free. This noetic freedom is not dependent on any external or other circumstances as our so-called freedom of the individual is. To be free means to be free from instincts and emotions.
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