Idea Of Freedom Research Articles

PEMIKIRAN FILSAFAT POLITIK ABDOLKARIM SOROUSH

The ideas of freedom, justice, democracy and secularism are the main themes in the study of political philosophy. This article attempts to explain Abdolkarim Soroush's political philosophy with the boundaries of themes regarding freedom, justice, secluralism and democracy. Abolkarim Soroush is a thinker in the contemporary Islamic world.

Lev Vygotsky’s Psychology of Freedom

ABSTRACT The author argues that the idea of freedom guided Vygotsky’s research from his very first steps in psychology, when he was deliberating on the “overman” and on “mastering one’s own behavior” by means of signs. The freedom of actions and intentions, not intellectual superiority, is the most essential distinction of “cultured man” from his kin in the animal kingdom. Man is free as long as he acts as a human—in accordance with culture rather than situationally, under the pressure of external natural forces. In the “height,” or “acmeist,” psychology of his later years, Vygotsky defines freedom as “the affect in the concept,” in the spirit of Spinoza’s Ethics. It is from this angle that the article studies the genesis of “psychological systems”—the age-specific changes and social varieties of affect–concept relationship, as well as the disruption of this relationship typical of schizophrenia.

Freedom as a concept and as a property of the subject

The other side of the alternative of “objectivism or subjectivism (anti-substantialism”), can appropriately resolve the problem of the essence of freedom. Hegel wrote: “No idea can be said with such full right that it is indefinite, ambiguous, accessible to the greatest misunderstandings and therefore is actually subject to them, as about the idea of freedom, and none of them is usually spoken of with such a small degree of understanding of it. Since the free spirit is a real spirit, to the extent that the misunderstandings associated with it have enormous practical consequences...” (Hegel, 1977: 471) Thus, even the idealist Hegel admits that the problem of freedom has theoretical and particular practical significance. One can agree with I. Kant, G. Hegel, and N. Berdyaev, and many other philosophers that freedom exists only in the world of human reality, that is, in culture and society. In nature, both living and nonliving, it is not freedom that occurs but a necessity dialectically associated with chance and possibility. As Hegel rightly pointed out, “Nature ... manifests in its present being not freedom, but necessity and chance” (Hegel, 1975: 695). This statement certainly needs to be concretized. Freedom cannot coincide with necessity, but it cannot entirely resist it. Freedom that is not based on any form of necessity, as Hegel also showed, is not freedom. It is arbitrariness. Naked arbitrariness, according to him, is will in the form of chance (Hegel, 1974). One should bear in mind that the differences between inanimate (physical and chemical reality) and living (biological reality) nature, and in the latter – between the levels of its organization – are qualitative and even essential.

Political Change in Liberalism: Carl Poper’s perspective as an example

Liberalism does not have one perspective on political changes. Classical liberalism places great emphasis on individual freedom and opposes state interference in the private affairs of individuals. From this standpoint, Liberalism accepts revolutionary movements against oppressive regimes that violate individuals’ freedom. The idea of freedom is central in neoliberalism, particularly in social welfares, to provide people decent conditions for pursuing a good life or for human flourishing and therefore the neoliberalism perspective opts for a limited interference by the state in the market. The different perspectives of neoliberalism can trace their roots back to classical liberalism’s arguments, which encourage individuals’ freedom and opt for limit state interference, while in terms of political change, they have conservative views and in this regard, Karl Poper is with the gradual changes of society and rejects the revolutionary mechanism because it threatens freedom and leads to tyranny
 

THE CONCEPT OF THE IDEA OF FREEDOM IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

The article gives the formation and development of the idea of freedom in the ancient and medieval European philosophical tradition. On the basis of the analysis it becomes clear that the modern understanding of the idea of freedom, as well as the ideas of law, justice and civil society take their roots in the philosophy of Antiquity and Middle Ages. The subsequent movement of philosophical and political thought only develops in more detail both theoretical categories and "applied" aspects of this notion, on the basis of which modern democratic states are built.

Formation of Ukrainian identity and national state formation in the modern era of the XIX century

The article examines the dynamics and features of the revival of Ukrainian national traditions, mainly languages and their institutionalization, which are accompanied by the formation of an intellectual national-patriotic elite, whose representatives were examples of moral behavior and political leadership in the struggle for national liberation. It is noted that having formed relatively separately in the four main parts of the Ukrainian lands (Dnieper, Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia), the Ukrainian scientific, cultural, educational and political elite began to unite efforts in organizing joint Ukrainian national revival institutions and actively participated in political life. It is argued that Ukrainian nation-genesis does not represent in political history a perfectly uniform movement towards progress. Perhaps this is the contradiction that causes either the decline of national life and the restriction of political freedoms of the masses, or the rapid rise of national and patriotic feelings and the mass awakening of national identity and the struggle for political freedoms. The middle of the XIX century, which became a period of national revival for the peoples of Europe, has been studied. This was preceded by important socio-political events of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in particular the bourgeois-democratic revolutions, which largely implemented the ideas of freedom, equality, and justice. It is outlined that the bourgeois-democratic revolutions and the national liberation struggle of the European peoples gave prospects for the Ukrainian nation to be reborn and developed. However, the Ukrainian lands were part of the imperial states with different levels of development of political culture, law, public morality, education and more. Thus, the Austrian monarchy of “enlightened absolutism” and the Russian monarchical despotism treated the Ukrainian people differently. Political events of the late XIX – early XX centuries. analyzed through the prism of the then dominant imperial spirit and the rise of the national consciousness of the peoples who were colonized by the imperial states. This means that Ukrainian national genesis and its institutionalized political freedoms are understood only in the closest connection with the imperial spirit of the European geopolitical space and national liberation movements. It is proved that the concept of political freedom for the peoples whose territories were seized by the imperial states, arose as a scientific philosophical and political thought in the first half of the XVIII century. and already in the works of J. Locke, J. Vico, N. R. J. Turgot, J. N. Condorcet and I. Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, and many other thinkers, it acquired a general civilizational worldview significance.

Responsabilidad y pandemia: Creación de un mundo moral

This article addresses the question of responsibility in contexts such as pandemics and other diseases or damages not caused by the agents involved, distancing itself from  phenomenological classical approaches. In order to do this, firstly, it undertakes the task of defining the concept of “responsibility” as a moral duty that arises from the relationship between broad duties and strict duties. Secondly, it takes distance from the republican approach which, inspired by the idea of freedom and justice as non-domination, defines responsibility as the duty that an individual has for the harm caused to another person. By going beyond this approach, the concept of responsibility is broadened so it reaches an individual for damages that were not caused by that person but can be avoided or compensated for. This concept also makes it possible for someone to assume responsibility by proclaiming itself as a moral person actively. Then, it explores the sense in which this approach places the agents before the opening of a “moral world” and how this world is inserted in the field of civil society through the generation of “trust networks”. Finally, the article concludes with an overview of how this idea of responsibility is applied in the context of pandemics such as Covid-19.

Философические листки: из дневников последних лет

The paper presents few extracts from the philosophical diaries of Russian historian, philosopher and poet Eugene Rashkovsky during 2017‒2020. The pivotal problems of his diary are connected with three branches of philosophical knowledge: Philoso­phy of human person, Philosophy of poetry, Philosophy of history. An idea of hu­man spontaneous creative activity (ποιησις) as well as interconnected with it idea of freedom – these both ideas seem to be central theoretical interest of the diaries’ au­thor. Human ποιησις (in the broad approach to this notion) seems to be important field where our feelings, intuitions, reason and praxis interconnected and finding themselves in the main streams and trends of history. “A Study of Poetry” with po­etry’s special, non-linear connections of semantic chains, images and rhythms is presented by author as one of hermeneutic keys to philosophical understanding of history. Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyev as well as Pushkin’s and Pasternak’s poet­ical heritage are the subjects of author’s special interest. A philo­sophical diary that does not require a scientific apparatus or detailed argumentation is a unique genre. Self-interview genre. Or, as I tried to show in one of my books, the genre of “raising the interlocutor” in oneself. Sure, it also happens that a natural, non-fictional inter­locutor can sometimes continue in a casual (or not casual) diary reader. The interview with oneself continues in the reader…

Rahner’s Idea of Freedom in Selected Secondary Literature

The importance and influence of Karl Rahner’s theology is due in great part to the number of excellent scholars who have elucidated his thinking over the years. This article assembles considerations of Rahner’s idea of freedom as found in the rich secondary literature on Rahner. Rahner’s ethics, and indeed much of his theology, rests upon the idea of discernment, his own spiritual experience, and the Ignatian practice of discernment of spirits. Discipleship with Jesus and the love of neighbor, all undergirded by the person’s free response to God’s grace and revelation, is the horizon that embraces all of what Rahner has to say. The idea of freedom rests at the basis of Rahner’s understanding of the human person, our call to discipleship, and our fundamental choice to grow in God’s grace.

Controversy and Growth Points in the Activity Theory in Psychology.

Activity theory is the most powerful and influential current of Russian psychology in the world today. It considers the psyche to be a special form or function of object-oriented activity. The level of psychical development of a living being is directly proportional to the variety and freedom of its activities. The aim of this article is to explore the key growth points in activity psychology through the analysis of arguments among its creators - S.L.Rubinstein, L.S.Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, and P.Ja. Galperin. Vygotsky dreamed of building a scientific psychology on the model of Marx's Das Kapital; his project is resumed in this article. The author traces how, due to Walter Cannon's experimental research, Vygotsky came to the activity concept of affect, in which he finds the primary "cell" of the psyche. The problem of the relationship between concept and affect became the central problem of his "acmeistic psychology." While Vygotsky focused on the affective reflection of activity in the subject, Leontiev focused on its cognitive side, directed toward the object. In the objective world, the psyche serves a person's material life-activity, performing a search-and-orientation function. Leontiev considered consciousness a structural projection of that activity, but Galperin argued that Leontiev never managed to overcome the dualism of consciousness and activity. A new path to the realization of Vygotsky's dream is outlined. The proposed solution is based on Spinoza's concept of affect and the idea of freedom, interpreted as "the affect in the concept." (Vygotsky).

On Valery Podoroga: Reflecting on the years of our friendship…

This essay remembers Valery Podoroga, whom I knew during the years of transition from Soviet to post-Soviet Russia. The details of our fortuitous meeting in Moscow in 1987 are chronicled in my book, Dreamworld and Catastrophe (2000), when we shared an interest in the early cinema of Eisenstein and Vertov, and a conviction that sensory experience — aesthetics in the general sense of the word — was the entryway to philosophizing. Podoroga translated these techniques of image-perception into a totally original, philosophical way of reading literature. Mimesis, his major work, contains reflections on the novels of Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Platonov, and others, analysing the sensory quality of these texts in order to feel bodily the transitory worlds that they created. Podoroga reads Platonov as embodying the rapid industrialization and agricultural collectivisation of high-Stalinism, a mimetic response that leads to the “de-anthropologisation” of experience. Mimesis describes how the bursting of literary forms culminates in the revolutionary consciousness of the avant-garde. Podoroga’s relation to Marx, who was a monumental figure in his childhood, differed from that of his predecessors (Lukacs, Lifschitz and others), and had affinities to Derrida’s reading of Marx’s “ghosts”. He considered the new, “glamorous” Marxism of the younger generation (editors of Stasis) as quite comfortably bourgeois and cautions that the equality of socialism was an equality of poverty. Podoroga valued the individual as the only possible philosophical subject. His idea of freedom was as an inner experience, which he himself attained in the last Soviet years when the archives of Western books opened to him and a “feast of knowledge” was made available. This private, inner freedom of reading and thinking was for him a kind of utopia. Yet this exercise of freedom was a strictly individual pursuit. Reflecting on the years of our friendship, 1987–2016, I ask whether the phenomenological experience of freedom would not, rather, require public acts of resistance.

ВОСПРИЯТИЕ СВОБОДЫ В КИТАЙСКОЙ ЯЗЫКОВОЙ КАРТИНЕ МИРА: ТРАДИЦИЯ И СОВРЕМЕННОСТЬ

This article examines the changes in the linguistic and cultural concepts of freedom (自由 zìyóu) in the Chinese linguistic worldview, which have occurred as a result of extralinguistic and socio-cultural transformations brought by globalization processes between the 20th and 21st centuries. The starting point of the research is the traditional ideas about freedom, rooted in Confucianism and the Taoist worldview, according to which disobedience and self-will of the individual can lead society and the country to chaos, so freedom should be limited by norms and prohibitions. By studying empirical data with the help of definitional, quantitative, interpretative, and contextual analysis, a total of more than 1000 phrases with the lexical unit of interest were gathered. Thus, the idea of freedom in modern Chinese society was described in great detail. The results obtained were accompanied with the data of the quantitative analysis of the most frequent collocations based on the materials of the Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese in Peking University. The article provides many examples that prove that the lexeme 自由 zìyóu occurs in phrases that describe numerous and diverse spheres of human activity. The conclusion was made that it has expanded its combinability capabilities as a result of the semantic shift that took place with the penetration of liberal ideas into China from the West. The research is of great importance and benefit for Chinese philologists, as well as for anyone interested in studying globalization processes and their impact on the traditional cultures of the East.

Острые грани общественного идеала (от давних дискуссий к современности)

The author outlines the views on social ideal of Russian thinkers from Vladimir Solovyov to Georgij Fedotov. Solovyov, advancing Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ideas, viewed the social ideal as a realization of the doctrine of universal solidarity and free development of a person under spiritual guidance of the Universal Church. This ecumenic and theocratic utopia had not received any recognition in Russian society, torn apart by unsolvable social and cultural conflicts. Pavel Novgorodtsev, generally sharing on the whole Solovyov’s views, thought that only the constitutional state could put these into effect. Konstantin Pobedonostsev pinned his hopes on monarchy, which would embrace popular religious and cultural traditions and oppose the “destructive” liberal reforms, while Nicolay Berdyaev believed in intelligentsia “transformed” by the idea of freedom. Georgij Fedotov called for the revival of the “need for freedom” and creation of the institutes executing spiritual development of society. The problem of the social ideal is relevant in modern Russia, though discredited by the neglect of cultural values, and above all, the devaluation of personal freedom. The prospect of a new cultural elite to overcome this remains vague.

Kurt Badt. Verlust der Mitte (On the Question of Modernism and the Anti-modernism in mid-20th Century German Art History)

On the example of the activities of the German art historian Kurt Badt, the article reveals the complex relationship between modern art and contemporary art history. The outstanding and, obviously, underestimated figure of the scholar, who throughout his long life was ready to confront the rest of the discipline unwilling to become a part of the university system, with all his creativity embodied the very idea of freedom that modern artists and sympathizing art critics strove for. Due to the availability of English-language versions of the art historian’s texts mainly on the masters close to modern art — Delacroix, Constable, and Cézanne — his position in the dispute about modernism seems more or less unambiguous. The aim of this article is to show that this is far from the case, discovering the points of contact of Badt with many of his colleagues who have earned a reputation as unconditional conservatives. First of all, it concerns the Austrian art theorist Hans Sedlmayr, an interest for whom, especially in recent times, is predetermined by widespread ideas about the fundamental incompatibility of academic art history with attempts of unbiased consideration of the history of modern art. Moreover, a deep kinship of such research activity with the most reactionary political ideas is also widely discussed, which, as it should be noted, this outstanding critic of the modern culture was not absolutely innocent of. Nevertheless, his clash with Badt, a polemic that took place in the 1950s and 60s, centered on the work of not Cézanne, but Vermeer van Delft, can be considered from the point of view of the attitude of the two scholars to phenomena less distant in time. This makes it possible to raise the question of the paradoxical similarity of the views of these two authors — with such a different creative and human destiny.

КОНЦЕПТ «ЧАЙ» В ПОВЕСТИ «ЗАПИСКИ ИЗ МЕРТВОГО ДОМА» И РОМАНЕ «ПРЕСТУПЛЕНИЕ И НАКАЗАНИЕ» Ф. М. ДОСТОЕВСКОГО

The article deals with the concept ‘tea’ in two works by Fyodor Dostoevsky – the novels The House of the Dead (1860–1861) and Crime and Punishment (1865–1866).In these works, the concept ‘tea’ includes both traditional representations – ‘tea as an element of everyday life’, ‘tea as part of a meal’, ‘tea as an attribute of friendship and communication’ – and new ones created by Dostoevsky, such as ‘tea for thought’, ‘tea as medicine and a source of strength’, ‘tea as a source of spiritual balance’). An important representation for the psychological line of the works is ‘tea as a chronometer’ – when the heroes check their internal clock with the tea time, as well as with the temperature of tea as it is becoming cold. The paper gives particular attention to the representation ‘tea as a marker of wealth’. In the novel The House of the Dead it is presented through the scenes where guests are being entertained to tea and through descriptions of the quality of the drink, in the novel Crime and Punishment – through the representation ‘tea as luxury’.The paper establishes the role of the concept ‘tea’ in conveying the main author's idea in the works by Dostoevsky. Along with other concepts presented in the text, such as wine, tobacco, food, cards etc., tea in The House of the Dead is intended to show readers the contrast between freedom and prison, contributes to the translation of the idea of freedom as absolute value. Meant to depict a special state of life – on the border of the light and darkness, life and death, wealth and poverty, the representations of the concept ‘tea’ in Crime and Punishment greatly contribute to the depiction of Raskolnikov's mental state, fit into the semantics of St. Petersburg of Dostoevsky.

Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day: A Butler’s Englishness from 1923 to 1956

This essay explores an idea of Englishness that a butler, Stevens presents in the novel of Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. An English butler Stevens’ idea of dignity in his attempt to advocate the great butlership is told and this paper relates his idea of dignity to English taciturnity and silent conversational practice and reads how this English practice is played out in his relationship with Miss Kenton. This practice is viewed as cultural inheritance especially bloomed in the nineteenth century handing down to early twentieth century. This essay takes it to what happened in 1956 when Stevens narrates his life as a butler serving an American master, Farraday holding Darlington Hall, who enjoys bantering. This paper discusses his Englishness is faced at a new visage during his journey to meet Miss Kenton and bantering is everywhere in England and it is now a part of Englishness. Conclusion is drawn to where rigid Englishness is not what is it anymore moving ahead to 1960s Britain where commercialism is widespread and different idea of freedom is rampant.

Economic Freedom and Inequality in the Art Market: The Case of the Commercial Gallery

This article aims to consider the contemporary art market vis-à-vis the concept of economic freedom. Drawn from a larger study, this paper offers a glimpse of the political function of the art market, which is essentially an economic field. What I demonstrate is an inevitable clash between a free market and between political constructions that effect levels of freedom—concentrating on the parameter of inequality. The article focuses on the case of commercial art galleries, and analyzes their operation under neoliberal conditions, which represent the implementation of the idea of freedom in the economic field. Subsequently, I demonstrate the how high levels of concentration in the art market erode the levels of the equality of the players in the field. Ultimately, I argue that this case offers an example of the more general operation of the art market, which follows neoliberal principles, and thereby undermines the concept of economic freedom that is intrinsic to them.

Changing hearts and minds: Cristina Lafont on democratic self-legislation

Lafont argues for a participatory version of deliberative democracy that shares key features with other contemporary approaches, while departing from them in decisive ways. It is based on the Rousseauian–Kantian idea of democratic self-legislation, interpreted as the idea that citizens must be able to see themselves as the authors of the laws and public policies to which they are subject. She insists that her specification of the ideal of democratic self-legislation is a general one, aiming to appeal to readers with different understandings of the core democratic values of equality, freedom and democratic control. This is questionable. I show that she interprets the democratic ideal of freedom as a distinctive, normatively robust conception of citizen self-determination. Those drawn to travel with her on the long participatory road should be aware of this and ready to explore the implications. By downplaying the distinctiveness and normative robustness of her idea of freedom, she does her model a disservice.

SELF-OTHER DIALECTIC, HEGEL, AND THE CONTEMPORARY THEORY OF 'THE POLITICS OF RECOGNITION'

This paper approached concepts of self-other dialectic and the politics of from aspect of Hegel's self-consciousness chapter in Phenomenology of Spirit. Various authors attribute Hegel as a source and inspiration for current theories of identity politics. This article is, therefore, focused on examining implication of Hegel's idea of 'recognition' and 'self-consciousness' on contemporary debates of identity politics. Hegel has an enormous contribution to current debate on identity politics. This article shows that with specific reference to the Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel's understanding of 'recognition' in terms of dialectic of consciousness is vital to see contemporary theory of politics of recognition in a broader epistemological and ontological basis. When it comes to more practical and empirical political situation of these days, his idea of freedom and recognition has many important insights that support constitutional liberal system to handle 'needs' and 'demands' of recognition raised in identity politics. As Hegel has emphasised in many of his works, in progress of human history, state (including established institutions) is Absolute Spirit that actualises reciprocal freedom and mutual recognition of individuals in a broader political space. Based on these Hegelian insights, study concluded that education, deliberative democracy, and institutions are substantial to handle competing 'needs' and 'demands' of recognition in identity politics without granting group rights and interests a constitutional recognition.

Institutions of freedom – Axel Honneth’s reading of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

In order to achieve a new understanding of modern society in the 21st century, Axel Honneth’s practical philosophy draws on Hegel’s famous Elements of the Philosophy of Right. The core and systematic structure of the Hegelian concept of freedom is analysed, focussing on the notion of abstract right. By identifying legal, social and political rights as yet incomplete but necessary elements of freedom, Honneth gains the theoretical means to establish a current philosophy of freedom and justice. Thus, he is also correcting the conservative picture of his famous predecessor in rethinking modern society on the basis of the idea of freedom once again.