Freedom's Virtues—Competence

So far we’ve looked at the virtues of integrity, responsibility, and honesty, and will look at competence here, then have, productivity, dignity, and courage to look forward to.

The virtue of competence is much more than merely the ability to know something and to do something well. The virtue of competence is knowing how and being able to live one’s life well.

For any individual, what constitutes competence will have two aspects: fundamental human competence and individual specific competencies.

To Live One’s Life

What I mean by, “fundamental human competence,” are the acquisition of knowledge and the development of the ability to reason adequate for living one’s life successfully. Since the mind is man’s means to survival and of achieving all that is possible to an individual, and the mind requires us to live by conscious choice, with reason as the means of making choices and knowledge as basis for correct choices, to live successfully as a human being on must have knowledge and know how to reason. What he must know is how to do everything he must do to succeed as a human being, from acquiring food to preparing it, to the care and preservation of his body, to the care and preservation of his mind.

What a man must do is determined by the nature of reality itself, both the physical reality he lives in, and his own nature as a conscious volitional being. Because man must create to live, much of what must be known is about his own creations.

Every individual must learn, for example, what tools are available and how to use them, both physical tools from eating utensils to machines, and mental tools like language, mathematics, and logic.

How much an individual must learn about these things is all they possibly can, determined by what they choose to do with their life.

Individual Specific Competencies

Beyond, “fundamental human competence,” because every human being is different, with different abilities, interests, and strengths, each individual must also develop those abilities necessary to achieving their own personal goals and objectives.

What you achieve in life will be determined by your competence in doing the things that are your life, your work and productive efforts. The specific work of every individual will be different, and the skills, abilities, and knowledge required will be different as well. Since the objective of every independent individualist is to be all they can as a human being, whatever they do with their life will always be done with the objective of doing it as well as they possibly can.

There is no guarantee that however much one tries to do everything well, they will succeed at everything they try, but so long as one always does their best, one’s temporary “failures” and “disappointments,” are just that— temporary and non-essential. If in everything you do, it is with the best of your ability you will succeed, and your success will be totally satisfying, because you will know you have done your best and all your are and have is the best possible to you, and yours because you’ve earned it.

Freedom Is Not Possible To The Incompetent

Everything you are able to do, from preparing a meal to performing whatever work you do, is the ability to live. Since freedom is freedom to live, to do whatever one must do to fulfill their own life, no freedom is possible without the competence necessary to live and do all those things one must do to be all they can be as a human being.

Every virtue is necessary to freedom, but without competence one cannot be anything, much less free. Incompetence is anything one is not able to do well, or do at all. In terms of freedom, incompetence means not being able to be free.