Max Wertheimer

LATE OF THE GRADUATE FACULTY,
NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

I shall report what happened in the course of three days to a good man
who, facing the world situation, longed for a clarification of the funda-
mentals of freedom.

He saw: ideological devaluation of freedom had spread; freedom
in the humane meaning of the word was proclaimed false, outworn, use-
less; and the radiance of the old idea was often exploited for other ends.
Some men seemed to have lost sight of it entirely, without realizing what
they had lost. Confused by the complexity of actual situations many
became uncertain, basically unclear with regard to the very concept
of freedom, its meaning, value, actuality. Even men who loved freedom
deeply often felt helpless in the face of actual arguments. So it was
with our man; not that he felt uncertain in many or most of the concrete
issues; but he felt impelled to reach a fundamental clarification. What
at bottom is freedom? What does it require? Why is it so dear to me?
He was a humble empiric, open-minded, thirsting for information.

Of course, those three days of his search were only a beginning for

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