AUTHOR: VICTOR CHUKWUEMEKA OGUGUA
DEPARTMENT: PHILOSOPHY
AFFILIATION: NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA.
Freedom has been construed as the absence of coercion and restraint imposed by others (that is “freedom from”).Freedom is also construed as liberty to engage in spheres of activities (that is “freedom to”).This implies that the individual has the right to choose and make decisions without any interference or restraint. The paradox of freedom is that its existence has become a subject of debate and controversy. For some scholars, freedom presupposes free will. For Jean-Paul Sartre, freedom is absolute. Recent debates in Social and Political philosophy regarding determinism, the extent of one’s freedom, have, in some ways, contradicted the idea of absolute freedom in Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of freedom. This notion of freedom in Sartre is an exaggeration of human freedom which leads to nihilism in contemporary thought and behavior. Spurred by Sartre’s claim on absolute freedom, this paper, through a critical analysis, concludes that absolute freedom is not possible based on the complexities in human nature which are climatic; genetic hereditary of instincts and passions like love and hate; physiological, psychological, sociological and spiritual factors.
TO VIEW THE FULL CONTENT OF THIS DOCUMENT, PLEASE VISIT THE UNIZIK LIBRARY WEBSITE USING THIS LINK, http://naulibrary.org/dglibrary/admin/book_directory/Thesis/10960.pdf
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Digital Library 