Culture and Freedom

Abstract

From classical philosophy, we have inherited two different solutions to the problem of freedom in which freedom is defined, respectively, either as the inner state of man as determined by the requirements of moral law (Kant) or as the cognition of necessity (Hegel). This paper argues that the aforementioned dilemma is unraveled once we start regarding freedom a cultural phenomenon. Attaining at freedom by cognizing necessity corresponds to the needs of intellectual culture. Humans are able to create anything new, whether in speculative thought or in any creative activity, only by constantly recurring to knowledge. Creative activity in the realm of spiritual culture is not bound by the discipline and rules governing the intellectual culture, and therefore, by way of constantly approaching the problem of meaning of life, it also gives one awareness of freedom qua subject of cultural activity.