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Gretel Carroll
On Human Freedom
John Grayson
May 2004
Optimism, recognition, and overcoming Denial
Many claim that human beings live in bondage. They try to explain how
human identity is socially constructed, and they insist each and every one of us
actually has little control over our lives. But the truth of the matter is that all living
creatures are free and autonomous beings, capable of making choices and
molding their own futures. Every situation that an individual lives through faces
him with decisions and choices—of which each gives him an experience that (at
the present concurrent moment) makes him feel autonomous. As Wittgenstein
once explained, even if we were to look up and see G-d as our puppeteer, we
would still have to respond and decide what move to make next. We would still
experience free will. We live in a free world, where our thoughts and actions are
at least experienced as being controlled by our own physical bodies. No one
else has access to the inner workings and connections of our brains that make
our bodies move and shape our thoughts. Freedom is simply a description of the
natural order of the world. It is not something we can achieve. In order to be
free, all we have to do is live and, while living, recognize our own liberty.
The majority of those who claim to be in bondage do so feeling as slaves
to society. However, I would claim they have not always felt that way, nor are
they destined to remain feeling as such. As children, we begin our lives by
making choices that we do not spend too much time rationalizing. We live fairly
happily, and freely, provided we have not been overly introduced to the hardships
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of the world. When young, many feel a sense of control over how they shape
their own lives. The young are aware that their identities are in an avid process
of forming, while those who have become disenchanted or jaded with the
troubles of the world have allowed themselves to feel formed. In other words, the
young experience forming, while the old may feel they have been formed. Those
who are not at least young at heart may not feel that their self-consciousnesses,
their identities, are in progress—despite the fact they are always continually in a
stage of becoming. Those who allow their perception of their self-consciousness
to become static become trapped. They no longer have the ability to form new
ideas. They become slaves, put in bondage, not by society, but by their own
minds.
We must wonder how so many people end up enslaved as such. G. W. F.
Hegel provides us with one possible explanation in his Phenomenology of Mind.
Hegel described how the process of recognizing others and ourselves leads to a
situation of master and slave.
Hegel described how individuals could only truly recognize their own self-
consciousness, and thus their ability to act as autonomous agents, by realizing
that they exist for another consciousness. In Hegel‟s words, “Self-consciousness
exists in itself and for itself, in that, and by the fact that it exist for another
consciousness; that is to say, it is only by being acknowledged or „recognized.‟”1 I
believe that an individual might very well go through the same process when he
begins to understand society as a real being, with qualities (such as desires)
1
Hegel, G. W. F. Phenomenology of Mind. “Independence of Self Consciousness.” London: Swan
Sonnenschein & Co., 1910, pg. 175.
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incredibly similar to that of humanity. Society has a self-consciousness—be that
a collective consciousness or something entirely different that we cannot
comprehend.
However, this recognition of self-consciousness and autonomy is rarely
peaceful. Hegel claims that individuals think of other individuals as problems for
their own self-promotion and ability to remain autonomous. And thus, both sides
enter into a struggle to survive; “each aims at the destruction and death of the
other.”2 The individuals have then entered into a relationship of master and
slave, where the master is “merely recognized” and the slave “only recognizes.” 3
Society, when viewed as the lord, can overpower and drown out nearly all
characteristics unique to the individual in bondage. The individual cannot help
but recognize the existence of the society because he is immersed and
surrounded by it. These societal pressures are then transformed and manifested
in theory by social construction. And thus, it is not surprising that much of
humanity feels enslaved.
This strategy that the individual uses to survive, however, is fundamentally
flawed. The individual, as the slave, does not seem to realize that the position of
the master is dependant upon the slave to maintain its position of power. The
slave is master of the master; or, as Hegel has said, “The master, however, who
has interposed the bondman between it and himself, thereby relates himself
merely to the dependence of the thing.”4 This idea is even more relevant when
thinking about the individual‟s relationship with society, because not only is the
2
Hegel pg. 179
3
Hegel pg. 178
4
Hegel pg. 183
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society dependant upon the individual slaves, but society is also composed of
these very same individuals. Then, in all actuality, the enslaved individual and
the enslaved society are slaves to none other but themselves. Thus, we must
conclude, that this dynamic of lordship and bondage that has ensued is merely
superficial, and if either society or the individual (both lords of the other) can
realize and recognize their true positions their chains of bondage can be cut.
Hegel‟s theory continues, but this is where we must stop—for this is where
so many human beings stop and become stuck in their perceived places within
society. I would like to offer two solutions (Hegel would probably disagree with
both): we can either recognize our free position of power, or we can avoid this
master and slave dynamic altogether.
Simply recognizing our freedom may not be easy, particularly because we
may have lived our entire lives as if enslaved. And, since living is itself freedom,
we probably will have sufficiently disguised freedom as bondage. Thus, we must
work towards being optimistic and being hopeful. If we can nourish and care for
these sparks of life hidden and overshadowed within us, we will begin, slowly, to
realize we do have freedom. With this realization will come the actual enactment
of living in a way that, not only is free, but also feels free.
The other option may only be available to our children. However, humans
can avoid this master and slave dynamic altogether if they learn how to do so
early on in life. If, with moral education we teach how to communicate and
cooperate with one another, we will not fear each other. In other words, Hegel‟s
assumption that one identity must destroy the other to maintain that identity is
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false. Communication and cooperation can lead us to trust one another. We will
be able to depend on and care for fellow humanity. We can avoid feeling
enslaved from the beginning and learn to feel safe with the other.
If we don‟t make every attempt to do one of these two things, many of
society‟s growing problems will continue. When we do not recognize our
freedom, we also do not recognize our own self-identity. We take way everything
that makes us unique individuals, and we place those characteristics on a
constructed outside world. This makes the individual feel powerless. We then
rationalize this helplessness, and we try to explain (although falsely) everything
through cause and effect; we make the other powerless and helpless as well.
We deny everyone any capability for good or for bad. This turns into an
absolution of responsibility and a denial that our actions and our choices do
indeed have consequences. We can affect our future. If we do not realize this,
we are setting ourselves up to live in a seemingly uncontrollable and very
frightening world.