Freedom: The Secret of Normativity

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.