What is the connection between freedom and necessity? Freedom and necessity: correlation and problem

Freedom is the desire for the infinite essence of man. This is a person’s desire to overcome internal and external boundaries that impede the needs of the human spirit for absolute self-expression.

Necessity is something you cannot do without. This is an objective requirement of the real world to the form of human existence as a natural phenomenon, limited in time and space.

Freedom and necessity are two sides of the same coin.

These are two qualitative characteristics immanent to human nature, which largely determine the form of life in society. Consider these categories in their dialectical unity. What is the relationship between freedom and the need for human life?

Nature of freedom

Freedom is one of the central categories of the humanitarian field of knowledge. Freedom is the ability to choose the path of self-realization of a person in life, creativity, society.

This quality determines the degree of social maturity of a person. The ability to make a choice in an effort to fulfill one’s destiny with benefit for oneself and for society, without threatening to infringe on the freedom of its other members.

Freedom is always associated with the knowledge of the need to limit the degree of freedom. Indeed, in reality, freedom is always limited by opportunities, conditions, methods, needs, and other external and internal constraints. In order to understand the relationship between freedom and necessity, the nature of the latter concept should be revealed.

Necessity: what is it manifested for a person?

Necessity is a philosophical category, which in the classical sense acts as a stable connection of phenomena and facts in nature and does not depend on the will and desire of people. To understand the nature of this category, you should familiarize yourself with the history of the formation of the concept.

Necessity manifests itself as hostile to the spirit of man, if he does not expose it to understanding. In the event that necessity is recognized as the absolute principle of nature, this approach leads to determinism. This is the absolutization of the objective laws of nature into which man is “inscribed”. Therefore, this approach denies a person’s ability to be free. Everything is predetermined, and a person’s choice is determined by external circumstances. Freedom and necessity in this case act as mutually exclusive concepts. Consider these concepts in unity.

The dialectics of the concepts of freedom and necessity in the history of philosophy

The relationship of freedom and necessity is the subject of analysis from the ancient period of human thought and culture. It is like scales - with a balance it allows you to organically fit into any form of life. If these scales sway towards freedom - there is scope for voluntarism. If in the direction of necessity - fatalism, inevitability and predetermination in life, which in its extreme manifestation devalues ​​the concept of freedom.

Only in their synchronism is a delicate balance maintained. What is the connection between freedom and necessity? If the answer is given in the traditional materialistic approach, then freedom is treated as a conscious necessity. What does this mean? And how does this contradictory judgment reveal the connection and interdependence of concepts?

Freedom is a conscious need

The most obvious contradiction between freedom and necessity appears in the analysis of relations between society (state) and the individual. On the one hand, personal needs of a person. On the other hand, there is public regulation on the boundaries of individual freedom in the interests of observing the freedom of other members of society.

The history of our state with a totalitarian management system has shown that an experiment on personal violence in favor of society leads to degradation of both the individual and the state. The value of a particular person should be a priority.

And the state mechanism for regulating the interests of members of society should be of an economic nature and respect human rights.

A conscious need for a person carries a positive message if the external need that restricts his freedom is perceived and recognized not only as an “objective evil” that needs to be accepted, but in this need the benefit for the person himself is revealed.

Escape from freedom

Freedom is not always a value, paradoxically. The famous psychologist Erich Fromm created a masterpiece called “Escape from Freedom”, in which he analyzes the path of choice of “unfreedom”, and therefore, an intuitive or deliberate disclaimer of responsibility for choice.

For example, such a social phenomenon as emancipation. Or the so-called “freedom” of women in the ways of their self-realization. Often in this phenomenon, just the opposite pattern can be traced - a large degree of responsibility of women in society, both for the family and for their own professional careers. Such social metamorphoses form freedom and necessity, problems of responsibility. for violation of their harmonious equality fall on the subject of activity.

Human Responsibility for Freedom of Choice

The greater the degree of freedom of a person, the higher his responsibility for the results of free behavior. Choice is the principle of freedom, the volume is limited by the range of the social contract - the law, norms. It is during the implementation of the choice that the connection between freedom and necessity is demonstrated. It has a proportional relationship.

Responsibility of a person in society comes under legal norms with the onset of adulthood, at 18 years old. It is from this age that a person is fully responsible for his choice. The choice always has consequences.

Even refusal of choice, inaction is also a choice and the existence of an individual’s responsibility for it in society.

The assertion that freedom is a conscious need emphasizes the responsibility of the individual to himself and society for the results of activities. Only a high degree of civic, personal self-consciousness forms a free society.

The philosophical and ethical categories of freedom and necessity in the system of humanitarian knowledge have a logical nature and at first glance seem far from the practical sphere of life. In fact, they are the fundamental principle of social self-organization.