The Paradox of Freedom in the Context of Construction and Self-organization of Social Reality

Abstract

In the article, the paradox of freedom is analyzed from the perspective of phenomenological construction, anthropological and axiological self-organizational processes of social reality. It is substantiated that the paradox of freedom lies in that a person is free in a phenomenological aspect, and therefore can construct social reality freely by phenomenological means. At the same time, a person is subordinated to anthropological necessity, which is clearly manifested on the bodily level. Phenomenological phenomena have an associative and emergent nature, therefore, they are instantaneous, stochastic, dynamic, nonlinear, hence pluralistic, i.e. unfold in the dimension of freedom. However, often such pluralism and freedom end where anthropological necessity starts. Herewith, values that a person constructs phenomenologically cannot be chosen absolutely freely, because all values are connected to providing anthropological needs. Therefore, human life is realized simultaneously through phenomenological freedom and axiological necessity. A human is a free creature and can choose their life’s way, but the optimal choice forces them to select something that is not harmful on the level of anthropological needs, i.e., the optimal choice is performed under the ‘pressure’ of necessity.

Keywords: free will, freedom, freedom of action, freedom of choice, determinism, indeterminism, humane values, responsibility, phenomenology of freedom