Kant's Freedom Theory And Human Dimensions

When domestic scholars studied on Kant's freedom theory, they always dividedfreedom into several levels and to study separately. In fact, however, Kant's freedomtheory has a consistent dimension, that is critical dimension. For freedom, there aretwo understandings; one is self-selection and it more emphasis on the human's freewill and it is based on the understanding of humanistic position; another isself-determination and it is the freedom's inner core meaning and it is based on theunderstanding of theological position. The complete empiricism, represented byHume, held the first understanding. It emphasis I have the ability and will to start asequence and others can not affect my freedom and this realized the freedom of myself-selection and without any others coercion in people's relationship. The completerationalism, represented by Leibniz, held the second understanding, they believedonly god have self-determination, and human can only determine themselves on thesurface due to human affect by some factors, such as, desire and so on. The twopoints are not contradictory and both of them want to reach self-determination. Butthe degree of self-determination is difference; empiricism start from human's freewill which can be seen in daily experiences and rationalism start from the god.Kant's whole freedom system start from transcendental freedom then throughfreedom of will last to supreme good. Transcendental freedom is absolute freedom,will freedom is limited freedom, but supreme good is the perfectly freedom, it is alsoabsolute freedom. The arrangement of Kant's freedom system shows Kant's deepwhole idea, which is Leibniz's rationalism moral theology. He sought to the absoluteand he put the highest god as supporting point and thought human should return togod. But due to affected by Hume, Kant know deeply that human can not feel god'sfreedom, so the most realistic freedom is human's will freedom and further makesure his humanistic position of critical dimension on the freedom question. Kantformed a unique critical spirit and critical attitude: in the humanistic vision ofempiricism, freedom is"can be thought"but"can not be known"; in the moral practice, freedom is not"is"but"should be"; to pursuit the supreme good is justhuman's yearning, is just one kind of"wish"."Can be thought","should be", and"wish"show Kant has the deep yearning to the most perfect freedom, but Kant thinkthe existence of god actually can not get any evidence, so it can only be consideredaccording to human criterion. In fact, Kant is critical philosopher who stands in thehumanistic perspective with metaphysics point.Kant did not arbitrate the existence of freedom like rationalism, and he onlyargued the possibility of form or logical of freedom in speculative philosophy. Kantstated the freedom can be allowed to think from distinguish transcend fromphenomenon and thing itself. Because phenomenon is not thing itself, it may has itsontology basis but"not phenomenon". Rational concept can not be in any empiricaluse, it is only exemplary and leading and virtual concept. Philosophy is thepossibility basis to recognize the object of experience, but it can not be proved itsobjectivity. Freedom as the transcendent philosophy must have the basiccharacteristics of philosophy. This determines freedom can't be produce from nature,without the object of experience which corresponding to freedom, it can not be makea reality proof to freedom in speculative philosophy. Although it can't be inconstructive use, it can be in regulatory use. So, the Causality concept need freedom,and freedom is possible. The further question is whether the freedom can becoexistence with natural law of causality, through the third antinomy, Kantdemonstrated the natural causality and free causality has the compatible possibility.In this sense, Kant's freedom can not be"known"but can only be"thought", limitedpeople can not realize the limitless freedom, and this is based on people's cognitiveability and the conclusion of humanistic position and transition to statement realityof freedom.The reality of freedom refers to the possibility of the material of freedom. Theidea of freedom can be given in the concrete reality only when it's been used fromspeculation to practice. Free categories is much more advantage than intellectualcategories, this advantage express they do not need depend on any perceptualintuitive materials, they formed the system of practice knowledge only by"the relationship of the principle of freedom first". This practice knowledge system is thefree category list. Contrast to Kant's free category list to analysis, it can be seen thatstart from the logic of freedom voluntariness through the practice implement offreedom in the moral law, and then to the teleological analysis, and finally todeontological argument, each part can be as the logic link of the freedom evolution,freedom achieved the leap from transcendental freedom to practical freedom. In thewhole process, only human play the roles, freedom is human's wills free, the morallaw is human's legislations, moral order reflects the human's self-discipline, humanare objective ( rather than trait human as the means of god), human's acts from therespect for the moral law and the action of the necessity of obligation, the motivationof human's behavior for the respect of the moral law( no motivation for god),everything from human, without the participation of god and there is no god position.However, human with both rational and emotional characteristics have the rationalside in moral practice and also under the influence of desire and impulse. Thefreedom which influenced by desire and impulse represents self-choice. Self-choicefreedom did not reach the free state of Confucius"At Ones Own Sweet Will, ButWithin Rules"and did not achieve the free state of freedom is"is", this freedom onlyembodied in I only according to my formulated moral law and behavioral"shouldbe". Here only realize the limited freedom, but not reach the absolute freedom, this isthe inevitable result of transcendental freedom failed to establish.The actuality of freedom refer to the unity of the possibility of freedom formand the possibility of the material, the sense of freedom and supreme good are meansthe actuality of freedom. Kant did not want freedom only stay in the limited freedomlevel, did not want freedom be carried out only in self-choice, he want to seek to theinfinite in the limited in order to reach the inner core meaning of freedom asself-decision. But the reality always is not satisfied, the subject of freedom had tomake their independent in order to realize the freedom, and dispelling the reality, itreached into Kant's"Critique of Judgment". As the preconditions of the division ofintellectual and imagination and the distinction of determinative judgment andreflective judgment, base on the intrinsic mechanism of teleology, Kant demonstrated that beauty is uninterested but can produce happy and have no conceptbut have universal necessary, most important is, and beauty is no purpose butPurposefulness. This is reflects human's inner feeling of freedom when human havethe aesthetic of the objective world. Although this sense of freedom is not objectivenecessity, it has universality. It embodies the individual break through the externalregulations in the process of pursuit the infinite life, break the inevitability decisionand return to oneself, beyond their own freedom spirit, let our"wait"emotionalmind can feel free, pure, happy life is sovereign and exhibits the infinite pursuit offreedom in nature and achieve the state of free nature and free fusion. However,fundamentally, sense of freedom for the aesthetic individuals, it is only therealization of individual freedom. To realize the absolute freedom, that is greatfreedom, it still need to progress to achieve the supreme good.Supreme good reveals rational freedom has the ability and the path to reachabsolution. Supreme good is the unity of virtue and happiness, but virtue bases onthe free principle and happiness bases on natural principle, to achieve their unity,Kant believed that, it can not be used the analysis method of Stoics and Epicurus butonly the comprehensive method, these two only be causal relationship and the virtualprinciple is the reason of happiness realization, and this relationship can be possibleonly under the setting of god exist and soul immortality. The setting of soulimmortality is only premised by the people can (have the qualifications to)"hope"get happiness. In order to safeguard the hope, set an undead soul which can beyondthe time limited and make people have the possibility of infinite efforts. Soul is theinfinite stretch of time. However, the setting of god existence is only premised by thehuman realize the absolute freedom. God is the eternal of transcends time and spacewhich can guarantee the soul live forever, and make the absolute judgment on thethings in the time and space. The setting of god existence is just need but not anobjective. God is in the moral sense, is the moral compensation, is in the formalsense. Supreme good is the result of the match of virtue and happiness, the wholereason of supreme is rational and it is the moral law of freedom. God is the conceptwhich create for freedom, it also should subordinate to the needs of freedom. In the process of pursuit the supreme good, human reached the absolute freedom, but it isjust as the existence life's supporting"hope". It depends on the setting of soulimmortality and god existence; this is Kant's conclusion about freedom which basedon the humanistic position.