What is freedom? On the issue of freedom, there are many views in the history of philosophy, which can be roughly divided into two categories: one is to advocate fatalism that passively conforms to nature and obliterates the possibility of human freedom; the other is to emphasize the absolute freedom of human will or some kind of spiritual power. The theory of will denies objective necessity and one-sidedly emphasizes the unrestricted subjectivity. Both are wrong.

Marxism believes that freedom is a category that marks the state of human activity, and refers to a state of conscious autonomy displayed by human beings through understanding and utilizing necessity in their activities. "Freedom is the understanding of necessity and the transformation of the objective world." People cannot get rid of the constraints of necessity. Only on the basis of understanding necessity can they have free activities. This is the limit of human freedom and the dialectical law of freedom and necessity. Inevitability is regularity, which refers to the objective laws inherent in the development of nature and society that exist independently of human consciousness.

Wilfulness is not freedom, and ignorance cannot gain freedom. Freedom is conditional. The first is understanding conditions. That is to say, we must have a correct understanding of objective things. The most important thing is a correct understanding of the regularity and inevitability of the movement and development of objective things. Once you understand the necessity and grasp the laws, you can make correct judgments about things and determine a reasonable action plan to achieve your goals. The more comprehensive and profound the understanding of necessity, the more accurate the judgment of things, the more proactive the action, and the greater the degree of freedom. The second is practical conditions. That is to say, true freedom can be achieved by applying the acquired knowledge of laws to guide practice and achieve the goal of transforming the world. Knowledge must only be a prerequisite for obtaining freedom, but it does not mean that freedom is actually achieved. Only by using necessity to transform the world and achieve the desired goal can freedom be truly realized. Without these two conditions, there will be no freedom. Therefore, Engels said, “Freedom does not consist in being independent from the laws of nature in the illusion, but in understanding these laws so that the laws of nature can be planned to serve a certain purpose...Freedom consists in acting on the basis of the understanding of the inevitability of nature. Dominate ourselves and external nature”.

Understanding necessity and striving for freedom are the fundamental goals for mankind to understand and transform the world. It is a historical process. Any practice is a specific practice at a certain historical stage, and freedom restricted by subjective and objective conditions must also be historical and specific. Freedom that transcends the stage of social development, practical ability and practical development level is impossible to achieve. The relationship between necessity and freedom runs through the entire existence and development of human beings, and has become the eternal contradiction of human existence and development. Therefore, it is also the eternal driving force of human existence and development. Human beings improve themselves in the constant pursuit of freedom, and also achieve development in the process of constantly resolving the contradiction between necessity and freedom. Building socialism with Chinese characteristics is a process of continuous advancement from necessity to freedom. Through unremitting exploration and experience accumulation in reform, opening up, and modernization, our party has gradually deepened its understanding of the laws of the construction and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and consciously applied the laws Promote the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We will be better able to properly resolve the relationship between necessity and freedom, and be better able to promote all-round social progress and the free and comprehensive development of people.