Isaiah Berlin, one of my favorite philosophers of all time, explains human freedom, through tracing the teleological and deontological history of philosophy. In the end he exclaims that science don't provide any goal. Somewhere it is human's determination which decide the authenticity of our life. We are extremely malleable. But, at the same time we have capacity to choose between just and unjust. This capacity to exercise a choice which is just or unjust makes us humans. As Huxley or Darwin expounds about human nature where a weak is crushed by a mighty creature. In that sense, nature don't have any moral content. But humans are capable to think about weak and strong at the same time. This unique capacity is a bulwark to ensure freedom. This notion is purely Kantian, which supports human dignity and human agency over teleological or theological determinism. Somewhere Stoics and existentialists like Sartre agree with this line of thinking. Human agency in today's world has disappeared unfortunately. We choose not out of volition but because society tends to think in that way. We in fact don't choose. We follow mechanically as if a machine has already been pre-programmed. Human nature has lost its characteristic to decide the moral contents valuable and respect-worthy for human dignity. That is a point of reference which perhaps has affected human's consciousness. We think that we are superior creature, someone who is capable to disturb the harmony. We have a unique capacity to make the nature plaything and in a way destroy what has been hitherto beautiful and full of wonders. This is not meant for human freedom. Freedom comes with responsibility as someone rightly said. Today there are all too freedom but where is justice? Where does lie the responsibility to think beyond the horizon of triviality? Only self interest runs in a robotic world where human agency is rhetorically claimed but in fact agency is no more. Everything is mysteriously submerged in tune of consumption and destruction. Life is not an end but process. But process itself has become boring and burdensome.
Aristotle once wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics that there are four significant virtues for human beings, namely Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Courage. There are a few judges who have courage and sense of justice, both. Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rohinton Nariman has been truly an exemplar judge and erudite historian, theologian and philologist, a great scholar of music as well as a courageous and meticulous jurist of our country. He did his Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1980-81 and taught by one of the finest jurists of the last century, Roberto Unger. He became Senior Advocate in 1993 in the age of 37 and also served as Solicitor General of India in 2011 before he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India in 2014. He delivered many landmark judgments, including Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. There are a few people with whom time moves too fast, but to count that experience takes ages. Justice Rohinton Nariman is one of those great jurists with whom a meet
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