Existentialist Freedom, Distorted Normativity, and Emancipation

<p>Usually associated with a view of freedom as absolute, Sartre&rsquo;s philosophy seems particularly able to account for the indeterminacy that we experience today in most areas of human experience that have a normative dimension. Without denying that this is a plausible reading, it will...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sorin Baiasu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2015-09-01
Series:Oñati Socio-Legal Series
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Online Access:http://ssrn.com/abstract=2622045
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Summary:<p>Usually associated with a view of freedom as absolute, Sartre&rsquo;s philosophy seems particularly able to account for the indeterminacy that we experience today in most areas of human experience that have a normative dimension. Without denying that this is a plausible reading, it will be argued here that it is nevertheless a problematic interpretation. On this reading, existentialism seems unable to account for the fact that we are powerfully conditioned by a significant number of factors, which limit our freedom and, in certain situations, make emancipation a normative requirement. It is held here that this problem can be addressed and a less problematic interpretation of Sartre can be defended, once we start to acknowledge that in Sartre we have a variety of notions of freedom that can provide a robust account of our freedom, of authentic choice and of responsibility.</p> <hr /><p>Habitualmente asociada a una visi&oacute;n de la libertad como un concepto absoluto, la filosof&iacute;a de Sartre parece especialmente capaz de representar la indeterminaci&oacute;n que experimentamos hoy en d&iacute;a en la mayor&iacute;a de las &aacute;reas de la experiencia humana que tienen una dimensi&oacute;n normativa. Sin negar que &eacute;sta es una lectura convincente, no obstante, se va a argumentar que es una interpretaci&oacute;n problem&aacute;tica. Con esta lectura parece que el existencialismo es incapaz de representar el hecho de que estamos fuertemente condicionados por un n&uacute;mero importante de factores que limitan nuestra libertad y, en algunas situaciones, hacen de la emancipaci&oacute;n una necesidad normativa. En este art&iacute;culo se defiende que se puede abordar este problema, y se puede defender una interpretaci&oacute;n de Sartre menos problem&aacute;tica, una vez empecemos a reconocer que en Sartre se pueden encontrar una variedad de nociones de libertad que permiten ofrecer una explicaci&oacute;n s&oacute;lida de nuestra libertad, de elecci&oacute;n aut&eacute;ntica y de responsabilidad.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2622045" target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2622045</a></p>
ISSN:2079-5971