Freedom And Situation

According to the view from classical rational philosophy, freedom is a kind of complete rational system, and it is characterized by its ideal combination of reality and possibility. Thus, human existence tends to be somehow idealized existence, and the common lives shared by human being are the community idealized as Fullness and Goodness. The dissertation will use the analytic method of philosophy of religion, aim to reveal the limitations of these idealized system of freedom, and point out that in such system of freedom, human existence will be the accessory of rational ideal; and the true human choice will predestined by universal ideas. As a result, human existence will lose its contextualism and become public.This analytic method, which originated from Kierkegaard, places great emphasis on the tension between reason and faith in human existence and the existential significance of human affections, that is, affection itself points to the objects, which are of great importance for human existential choice. Furthermore, based on the analysis to various affections, the dissertation will reveal the different classical concepts of rational philosophy by Kierkegaard and Heidegger, for their freedom includes the existential dimension that is specific and contextual.As for textual analysis, on the one hand, we will try to reconstruct Kant and Hegel’s system of freedom, on the other hand, by using the method of philosophy of religion, we will try to analyze the splitting dilemma brought forth by such system of freedom. Being a rational being, freedom in Hegel’s analysis becomes something idealistic, something beyond reach in human existence. The turning point is Kierkegaard’s analysis of human freedom, which may considered as the analysis of Emotion. Kierkegaard provides a profound criticism on modern idealism, which attempts to construct a modern society without individuals. His analysis of emotions calls for a return to the existential dimension, wakens religious consciousness in human existence, and demonstrates the receptive concept of freedom. In the same line of Kierkegaardian analysis of faith in freedom, Heidegger proposes an existential analysis of freedom, which understands freedom in time and in situation. Here, we will be able to see a development of the concept of freedom in western modern thought from an idealistic to an existentialist, from an abstract concept to a situated concept.