Kant’s take on Freedom

Where Kant was right.

This blog was entirely inspired by Kant’s teachings on freedom, and how to achieve what he considers true liberation.

Traditional Freedom

The traditional sense of freedom, is one’s ability to righteously act, speak, and or think the way they wish. Below is the definition that’ll appear after a quick google search.

“The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.”

Philosophers all throughout history, argued that this is the state in which man is most willing to live in. Of course, it is that principle that lead to the declaration of new nations, through self determination.

The ideals that lead to the birth of democratic governments, where the people have the opportunity, and obligation, to rule themselves. Above all else, freedom fuels our desire to actively seek the abolishment of tyranny, liberating those enslaved under it’s rule.

Although many, if not all of these freedoms are positive, it wasn’t the case profound philosophers were asserting. This may be surprising to some, but it’s true. Many free thinkers did indeed advocate for democracy, self determination, and liberation.

However, on top of that, many of these thinkers went on to separate freedom into different categories. Some, even opine that the notions of our traditional freedom are completely backwards!

Kant vs Freedom

The average person, assumes that when presented with alternative choices, would have the freedom to choose one over the other, on the basis of individual desire.

This is what Kant called “The Idea of Freedom”. It is also more commonly known today as libertarian freedom. Kant however, saw freedom differently, and perhaps in a more sophisticated manner.

Libertarians would state that one is free when they can choose what they want. Kant in contrast to that, believes that choosing what you want isn’t freedom. He insisted that acting on the basis of desire is being governed, not by one’s reason, but by their primitive, animalistic instincts.

Kant’s perception of freedom, is the ability to govern one’s actions on the basis of reason, and not desire. This can all be reduced to the concept of Autonomy.

The word Autonomy, derives from Greek, literally translating to self legislator. So the idea, is not to live by one’s animalistic nature imposed on them from birth, but rather to live by the laws you impose on yourself.

So in Kant’s view, libertarian freedom isn’t real, but in reality, is just enslavement of oneself to their desire.

Kant on Reason

The ideal notion of reason, is to derive conclusions on the basis of objectives, rather than subjectivity. In other words, using logic backed with empirical facts and evidence, is considered superior to conclusions driven from anecdotal experiences.

This is the standard way in which we operate professionally, and reasonably. Kant agreed that this is positive, however, he saw reason in another light. Kant describes the reason where one uses their intelligence, as instrumental reason.

So empiricism is considered instrumental in this case. Differing from that, he makes the case for what he coined as “Pure Reason”. This concept simply put, is what one considers “good” and “evil”. With pure reason, one can decide how to live their lives. With instrumental reason, one can decide on what they need to do within their life.

Pure Reason in relation to Freedom

The most important aspect of pure reason, is that it’s separate from libertarian freedom. To further elaborate, libertarian freedom in Kant’s view is being the slave to your own desires.

So he wouldn’t then describe the concept of one’s notion of “good” and “evil” as desire.

He set that as a boundary for the classification of individual morals, where desire can’t be a rational fuel for one’s opinion of what’s moral.

This relates to freedom in a really eye opening way. Through Kant’s works, we begin to understand that freedom cannot coincide with the oppression of one’s pure reason, where the oppressor is desire. We must suspend our desire, to achieve freedom.

When this is done, we can begin to run our lives on the basis of what we consider moral through the usage of pure reason, rather than succumbing to our wants.