Man and his Liberties

Abstract

In this paper I present the limitations for the development of human beings that result from the understanding of the term freedom which is present in some contemporary philosophical conceptions. Projects of negative freedom developed by liberalism, naturalism and postmodernism are successively discussed and, in the final part, confronted with Christian positive freedom. It is emphasized that each discussed proposition of negative freedom leads to further “enslavement” and only the freedom that is based on identification and affirmation of one’s values and aims can lead to an authentic, free and, at the same time, responsible individual development. Furthermore, such a freedom “opens” a person for the other people and provides a better basis for creating a just social order. The aim of this paper is also to prove, that such a conception of freedom is more coherent with the spontaneous, dynamic human nature than the defeatist views of some postmodern philosophers, and also, that it explains the achievements of human culture far better than they do.

However, in order to be legitimated, this conception needs reference to the transcendence. Without assuming a perspective of infinity, all our decisions would be meaningless. As human beings we a free to make a choice. Either to make decisions so that our lives and decisions will constitute a world of meaning, or, by escaping from decision making, we agree to chaos and uncertainty.