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The first chapter of On Freedom opens with an explanation of the word Leib (German for “body”). Edith Stein, a German philosopher, used the word to describe the human body as a center of life and feeling. Sovereignty, the first of the five forms of freedom Snyder examines, involves knowledge of oneself and the world, which comes through acknowledging others. In “Life” and “Neighbor,” Snyder uses examples from Edith Stein’s life in Germany during World War II to contrast the words Leib and Körper. Both mean “body,” but the Nazis used the latter to define and separate people by race (Fremdkörper = “foreign bodies”). Snyder uses examples from the Bible to further explain that sovereignty is a basic form of freedom that requires acknowledging one’s peers. In “Mystery,” Snyder uses examples from the life of Simone Weil to explain that being sovereign means that one recognizes individual responsibility to work for the betterment of humanity.

“Stadium” recalls major league baseball games Snyder attended as a boy, in the 1970s. He saw players of different ethnicities but, at the time, did not recognize that each would have different experiences in America, especially when listening to the national anthem.

In “Death,” Snyder describes becoming gravely ill late in 2019. His appendix burst, and at first he tried to ignore the pain. Because he delayed seeking proper treatment, sepsis started to affect his other organs. Snyder comments that he made an “American mistake” in regarding his body as an object. Despite a successful appendectomy, he suffers lasting effects from the episode. In “Race,” Snyder returns to a hospital and a friend of his, a doctor, tries to persuade colleagues to take his condition seriously. Snyder claims that because his friend was Black, she was mostly ignored, and as a result, he did not receive immediate treatment.

In “Happiness,” Snyder reflects on the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as stated in the Declaration of Independence. He agrees that life should come first, because without Leib, one cannot experience freedom. Furthermore, liberty is connected to life, since without freedom life is threatened. But Snyder offers a list of contradictory statements about happiness from a variety of writers and philosophers to show that the pursuit of happiness takes many forms, and thus it, too, requires liberty. In “Health,” Snyder argues that many white people reject the concept of universal healthcare because it will mean sharing it with Black people. For true freedom to exist, people must care about the health of their peers, so the fourth universal right should be a right to healthcare.

In “Catching” and “Pitching,” Snyder describes his rehabilitation after being hospitalized. As he describes learning to throw a baseball again, he reminisces about learning the art of pitching when he was young, and about the outlook and habits he acquired from his elders in the course of doing so. In “Breathing,” Snyder describes how a group of musicians and actors in Poland revived a style of Jewish music that was popular before its practitioners were killed in World War II. Snyder states that sovereignty relies on all of the things we inherit. “Recognizing” revisits the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Snyder mentions that both Stalin and Hitler wanted Ukraine for its resources, but ignored its people. Snyder states that one must acknowledge others, and to dehumanize others keeps us from experiencing freedom. He reflects on wounded soldiers he saw in Ukraine, as well as on a friend of his that suffered from ALS. In “Acknowledging,” Snyder describes teaching a class in a maximum-security prison and recalls how the inmate students there interacted with Edith Stein’s theories. He states that empathy is a requisite for becoming a reasonable person. Acknowledging others grants freedom to the individual. In “Seeing,” Snyder reflects on his incarcerated students’ reactions to the war in Ukraine. Through empathy, his students became more connected to people fighting in Ukraine.

In “Swimming,” Snyder describes riding on a bus in 1976. Another student use a racial slur to refer to Snyder’s Black teacher. Snyder remembers learning to swim at a club that, once privatized, could discriminate based on race, despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By labeling certain groups of people, one is inherently labeling themselves as well. In “Contract” and “Contact,” Snyder examines freedom and the Leib as it pertains to children. Since children are reliant on others, they cannot have the same definition of freedom as adults, but a state that encourages and enables them to experience freedom is ideal. People should be concerned with the environment the next generation will be born into. “Loan” further describes the relationship parents have with their children. Parenting and caregiving require effortful attention, since babies will not learn if left alone. A state should support the freedom of women by making accommodations for childbirth.

Snyder begins the final vignette of this chapter, “Opening,” by describing Plato’s analogy of the cave as nonsense. Freedom exists in the real world, not as a reflection of an ideal. Snyder also warns against the notion that freedom is attained through death, since this denies the role of the Leib. The individuals shackled in Plato’s cave would quickly realize they are physical beings. They would understand themselves better through recognizing the suffering of the others beside them. According to Plato, Socrates compared philosophy to childbirth. Snyder find sthis a much more accurate picture of freedom. Freedom is entry, with the support of others, into a widening world of opportunity.

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