Carrol Cox wrote: > Freedom is the ability to act without considering the future results of > the action.
Therefore non-human animals are most free. And if we extend the meaning of "action" to include all types of motion, then inanimate matter is absolutely free in the Carrolian sense. In fact, human freedom is based precisely on our consciousness of necessity -- of cause and effect, of the regularities of nature and human life. Human freedom is ultimately based on the human power that results from such consciousness -- human productive power, big enough to be productive of social structures that foster cooperation and mutual solidarity. Because we can only be free as socialized individuals -- individuals who don't ignore and shun their mutual interdependence (and their ultimate dependence on nature) but embrace it (them) and build social structures where their necessary interdependence (and our metabolism with nature) can be better managed. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
