Freedom

Hegel (transition to the Logic of the Concept)

Freedom is the truth of necessity. It is not the absence of determination, but self-determination. The free act is the one whose determining grounds lie in myself. Hegel's formula: "Being with oneself in the other." When I am determined by my other, but this other is my own product, I am with myself --- free. Necessity becomes freedom when it is recognized and appropriated: "Necessity is blind only insofar as it is not comprehended." Freedom is not arbitrariness (arbitrary choice), but rational self-determination. The transition from necessity to freedom is the transition from the Logic of Essence to the Logic of the Concept.

Origin

Greek eleutheria (freedom of the citizen). Stoics: freedom as insight into necessity. Spinoza: libertas = causa sui. Kant: autonomy vs. heteronomy. Hegel: freedom as self-knowing and self-willing necessity.

In Hegel

Enc. §158-159 (transition to the concept)

Cross-references

Necessity · Concept · Reciprocal Action · Autonomie · Self-Determination · Concept