On Freedom

by Timothy Snyder

We have encountered, but not quite yet listed, five rules of the geometry of the fifth dimension. The first rule is difference: the world of what is (the first four dimensions) and what ought to be (the fifth) are distinct. They can be brought together only through us, through our bodies. The second is plurality. In the realm of what should be are many virtues, not one. The third rule is intransitivity. The various goods are good for various reasons. The virtues are not reducible to one another. They cannot be ranked. It is not that honesty is better than loyalty; they are simply different. The fourth rule is tension. We cannot just pull all the virtues from the fifth dimension into our four of time and space. In practice, the virtues compete with one another. I might like to be punctual, but I should also be patient. I might wish to be a person of integrity, but sometimes I should compromise. We might value skepticism, yet we have faith. Love is blind, but it takes discernment to know what not to see. That leads us to the fifth rule: combinability. People can bring together virtues in creative ways and sometimes create new ones.