Concepts of Freedom
KECSKEMETI, PAUL
Concepts of Freedom The Idea of Freedom. Revieived by Paul Kecskemeti By Mortimer J. Adler. Stag mem6er? Ralul Corporation; Oouhleday. 689 pp. $7.50. author, "Strategic ...
...The Neu...
...This repertory is extremely valuable in itself...
...among those who cultivate the other two basic concepts, conservatives and moderate liberals predominate...
...Acquired" freedom consists in the ability to do what is right, to make rational choices...
...For example, it is odd to find Nietzsche characterized as a thinker operating solely with the concept of "collective" freedom...
...What we have here is an expository volume dealing, not with the historic controversies about freedom, but only with the various distinct concepts of freedom held by the important thinkers who have contributed to the subject...
...It is...
...What is more, the individuality of the various authors treated always shines through, in spite of the rigid classificatory scheme adopted by the author which in less skilled hands would easily have led to a blurring of outlines...
...These groupings always contain very dissimilar thinkers...
...Going through the entire corpus of significant Western philosophical writings from Plato and Aristotle to Jean-Paul Sartre and Paul Weiss, Adler collected an enormous number of utterances on the problem of freedom...
...As a taxonomy of Western ideas about freedom, the book is first-rate...
...thus, we find Aquinas, Dewey, Hobbes and Freud among others grouped together in one table...
...Leader...
...author, "Strategic Surrender" THE DUST JACKET describes The Idea of Freedom as "the first comprehensive, objective study of twentyfive centuries of discussion and controversy about freedom...
...Circumstantial" freedom is possessed only by individuals who are not restrained by outside agencies, and "acquired" freedom belongs only to the "virtuous" or "wise" person: "natural" freedom, however, is something no man can be deprived of and no man can fail to achieve...
...The "circumstantial" concept of freedom seems to attract thinkers associated with the "left," with progressivism and anti-authoritarianism...
...Plato, Aquinas, Luther...
...On the whole, however, the classifications found in the volume are accurate enough...
...It is freedom as "self-determination...
...The final question is, however, whether such a taxonomie treatment of philosophical theories actually is the master key to philosophical progress on the road toward scientific maturity...
...This does not seem to me to be the case...
...The main question in connection with freedom so defined is whether one's freedom of action is or is not restricted by external agents...
...On the other hand, religious thinkers have an affinity for the "natural" concept, not, of course, as one justifying slavery, but as that which gives man the greatest dignity...
...Actually, there is nothing "•collective" about the freedom of the "free minds" whom Nietzsche extolled, nor did he grant any freedom to any collectivity whatever...
...For thinkers who assert that this type of freedom exists (some, of course, being determinists or mechanists, deny it), every man is always free, even if he is in prison or caught in the toils of sin...
...This is misleading...
...of course, characteristic of "left" anti-authoritarians to put the main emphasis upon the removal of restrictions of freedom...
...He brought each of these under one or the other of his three main classificatory headings, and developed in this way an astonishingly rich, complete and instructive survey of the ways in which freedom has been characterized by leading thinkers of the West throughout the ages...
...There are many tables in the book, grouping together all the thinkers who operate with the same basic concept of freedom, or the same combination of such concepts...
...What does it contribute to our grasp of the great Western debate about freedom, of the philosophical struggles revolving around the key concepts of freedom and authority, freedom and necessity, right and might, determinism and indeterminism...
...Revieived by Paul Kecskemeti By Mortimer J. Adler...
...Some of Adler's classifications seem to me open to doubt...
...To thinkers of such a frame of mind, a concept such as Adler's "natural" freedom, a freedom compatible with the most abject external conditions of servitude, is worse than useless...
...Nevertheless, certain rough dividing lines of antagonistic schools are discernible...
...Two additional variants of the concept of freedom are "collective freedom" and "political liberty": freedom to be achieved only by a common effort, and freedom as vested in the "citizen" having political rights...
...Calvin, Freud and Dewey in another: Augustine, Aquinas, Bergson, William James and Dewey in a third...
...Natural" freedom is freedom considered as an essential property of man (or of the human will...
...Adler s categories do not separate philsophical or political sects...
...While "circumstantial" freedom is related to "selfrealization," "acquired" freedom is related to "self-perfection...
...According to Dr...
...Finally, the concept of "acquired" freedom is most congenial to ethically oriented thinkers...
...Concepts of Freedom The Idea of Freedom...
...Discussion of the controversies themselves is reserved for a later volume...
...Circumstantial" freedom is the freedom to do what one wants to do in a given situation...
...This kind of freedom is the absence of restraint, often referred to in the literature as "negative" freedom...
...Adler, philosophic thinking about freedom has revolved around three basic concepts : freedom defined as "circumstantial," "acquired" and "natural...
Vol. 41 • December 1956 • No. 45
