The impact of idealism: »First, Hobhouse explains, the idea of freedom in German idealism is that of self-determination. To count as fully self-determining, a will must be “autonomous” – that is, literally, it must follow a law from itself. Secondly, the will in question is not the will of the individual but that of the collective: society as a whole. As far as the individual goes, then, true freedom lies in identification with that whole. In that way, Hobhouse argues, the subordination of the individual to the state comes to be seen as justified. The idea that freedom requires submission to law may sound no better than the masochistic slogan (“Freedom is slavery”) written on the wall of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Yet, in fact, there is a deep philosophical thought behind it: true freedom is incompatible with arbitrariness. Take the conventional contrast between determinism and libertarianism. If some radical version of determinism were true, our every action would be the inevitable consequence of a set of laws and initial conditions almost inconceivably distant from ourselves – circumstances which, if they had only been the tiniest bit different, would have led to different outcomes. If, on the other hand, each action is an isolated, undetermined event, our choices become unintelligible.«
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 09:17:59 +0000
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