Review article
Thoughts about Freedom in the Work of Kant
Zdravko Perić
Abstract
The research aims to present understanding of freedom in the history of philosophy. It starts with the thought of the ancient Greeks, who preceded in a certain way all European philosophers who came later. The ancient Greeks did not deal with the concept of freedom by treating it as a value in itself. They analyzed freedom in different relation with being. For that reason their concept of freedom had a different meaning. With the arrival of Christianity freedom is characterized differently in comparison to the notion accepted by the ancient Greeks. St. Augustine, who has been considered a major representative of the Christian thought, brought a Christian approach to the concept of freedom. His concept was described in his works, the most notable one On Free Choice of the Will. “Freedom can be defined with more than one norm or standard” – claimed St. Augustine. He also believed that freedom has its origin in the God of the Bible who has the quality of the truth.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant approached freedom from an opposite viewpoint. Kant, unlike Augustine, based his concept of freedom on autonomous acting. Philosophers that followed Kant recognized his thought as a value and followed him in different ways depending on the cognitive trend they represented.
Keywords
freedom; autonomy; heteronomy; law; will
Hrčak ID:
106396
URI
Publication date:
19.7.2013.
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