TITLE:
Freedom: The Secret of Normativity
AUTHORS:
Yafeng Dang
KEYWORDS:
Free Will, Power of Action, Individuality, Universal Freedom, Normativity
JOURNAL NAME:
Sociology Mind,
Vol.14 No.1,
January
9,
2024
ABSTRACT: Norms, more specifically, human responsibilities, are
the premise of understanding freedom, and in turn, we can reveal the secret of normativity by understanding freedom.
In traditional
freedom, normativity refers to the freedom of choice and the freedom of the
power of action. The former is free will, and the latter is two opposite
orientations for social conditions. The freedom of laissez-faire is based on
the premise of canceling social conditions, and the absolute spiritual freedom
is aimed at maintaining social conditions. The traditional freedom regards freedom as
something preexistent, so it is a metaphysical normativity. In Dewey’s freedom,
normativity refers to the internal correlations between choice and the two
freedoms of action power, which is manifested
as rational choice, that is, examining its social conditions while
retaining the choice. The rational choice embodies the principle of individuality, which expresses the reality of the existent structure that the
actor is different from other actors by their actions. Dewey’s freedom is a
factual description of the internal relation
and structure of freedom, so it is a naive normativity. In universal freedom, normativity means the logical unity of
universality and historicity of freedom. The universal significance of Aristotle’s practical starting point
and the fore-structures of Gadamer’s understanding
together constitute the meaning of the universal freedom. Universal freedom is the concrete application of the universal. In
short, universal freedom is the origin of normativity.