The Question of Freedom: Social and Political Progress Under Conditions of Modernity
The idea of modernity is closely associated with the expectation of progress. In Europe, the combination of Enlightenment thought, French Revolution and Industrial Revolution is often seen to spell the onset of modernity; and the new society that was emerging would leave all limitations of the past...
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| Formaat: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Taal: | Français |
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2017
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| Online toegang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Samenvatting: | The idea of modernity is closely associated with the expectation of progress. In Europe, the combination of Enlightenment thought, French Revolution and Industrial Revolution is often seen to spell the onset of modernity; and the new society that was emerging would leave all limitations of the past behind and open up towards the wide horizon of a future of steady improvement in the human condition. This enthusiasm about the future was generated by the possibilities that would emerge with freedom: freedom as self-realization in personal terms and freedom as political self-determination in collective terms. Increase in the possibilities for personal self-realization will here be understood as social progress; and increase in the possibilities for collective self-determination as political progress. In this light, the purpose of this article is to review the connection between modernity and progress through freedom, a connection that is much more complicated than often assumed because the meaning of freedom has always been contested and different interpretations of the concept have been and keep being proposed. That is why the article proceeds by diachronically contextualizing interpretations of freedom and, by implication, analyzing the ways in which realizations of freedom are seen as constituting social and political progress. In other words, it looks at transformations of modernity from the angle of possible progress achieved through the increase of freedom, of some kind or other. |
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