A Research On Hegel’s Freedom

Freedom is the eternal ideal and universal pursuit of human.Hegel’s thoughts on freedom constitute an important branch of theories on human freedom.Because of the all-embracing nature of Hegel’s philosophy and its obscure textual features,a great deal of research at home and abroad on Hegel’s thoughts of freedom has the advantages of multi-fields,multi-approaches,etc.On the other hand,there are some shortcomings,such as discreteness,one-sidedness,etc.It is necessary to give a systematic,comprehensive,accurate and thorough interpretation and understanding of Hegel’s thoughts of freedom.Therefore,this study aims at making a systematic and evidencebased interpretation of Hegel’s freedom,based on Hegel’s views on philosophy and the methods of textual interpretation,metaphysical analysis and “experience” reduction,etc.First of all,facing the problem of “What is freedom”,we find that Hegel’s freedom has the following metaphysical stipulations.Firstly,the speculative definition of “Being at home with oneself in the other” constitutes the basic formula for Hegel’s concept of freedom.It shows that freedom is in essence an “other-self relationship”,that “other”and “self” constitute the two major premises of freedom,that “Being at home with oneself in the other” constitutes the key meaning of freedom,and that its opposite is non-freedom or no freedom.Secondly,there are four main realization models of this definition: self-realization,mutual recognition,unity of subject and object,and“subject-entity”.These four models,in turn,constitute the four main approaches to Hegel’s thoughts of freedom: Ontology,ethics,epistemology,and ontology.Thirdly,freedom has the characteristics of concreteness,inevitability,infinity,unity and reconciliation,and as the reasonable solution of other-self relationship,it forms the value itself and the highest value.However,the subject of Hegel’s freedom is Spirit,and his freedom mainly refers to the Freedom of Spirit.Therefore,how to understand the spirit constructs the key to understand Hegel’s freedom,we must deeply examine Hegel’s spirit theory for the concrete interpretation of his freedom thought.It is found that Hegel had a mature and complicated theory of Spirit,which constituted the symbol of Hegel’s philosophy and has many interpretations.According to the text,Spirit has many characteristics,such as the definition of “the self-knowing,actual Idea”,the stipulations of “ideality” and “manifestation”,the features of“movement”,“unity”,“freedom”,“non-naturalness” and “rationality”,etc.It refers to the process of existence of “Things Themselves”---the correspondence between an internal logic experience of “Thinking-Concept-Idea-Spirit” and an external historical phenomenon of “Being-Existence-Idea-Spirit”.At the same time,this process is formally shown as the structure of the reciprocating progress of the “Circle”,and it is embodied in the binary structure of the “Ideality-Manifestation” or “Thinking-Will”.In essence,it presents a trinity structure of “Knowing-Doing-Being” of “IdealityManifestation-Things Themselves” or “Thought-Will-Reason”.Thus,Hegel’s spirit has the basic connotation of the unity of epistemological connotation and ontological connotation,and the unity of the spirit as everything and the spirit as human.At the same time,the ontological connotation of spirit is based on the epistemological connotation,and the spirit as everything is modeled on the spirit as human.Therefore,Hegel’s spirit mainly refers to human beings,and his freedom of Spirit is the freedom of Man.According to the essential structure that the “Knowing-Doing-Being” of Spirit,Hegel’s theory of spirit contains a systematic theory of freedom with the basic theme of “Freedom of Thought”,“Freedom of Will” and “Freedom of Reason”,the main texts of Little Logic,Elements of the Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of History,and the important forms of “Theoretical Idea”,“Practical Idea” and “Historical Existence”.According to Hegel’s philosophical outlook,his philosophy is essentially an“Interpretation-Norm” system about the thing itself,which is the unity of thought and object,Inner and external,logic and history.On the one hand,“Freedom of Spirit”constitutes the fundamental concept of Hegel’s interpretation of the world,on the other hand,it has the normative connotation aiming at human freedom.This research is based on these two premises to explain the concrete content of Hegel’s freedom in detail.First,“Thought” is the research object of logic,which has the characteristics of“Knowing”,“Universality”,“Dialectics”,“Truth” and “Freedom”,etc.“Freedom of Thought” is an important theme of logic.Little Logic has revealed the specific way of the freedom of thought,containing “The Doctrine of Being”,“The Doctrine of Essence”,“The Doctrine of Concept”---three major links.Thinking is a symbol of a “thinking man”,and Freedom of Thought has corresponding normative connotation.On the one hand,it contains the stipulation about “how to think”,specifically “Thinking with Concept”,that is to say,as an important source of Marxist “Materialist Dialectics”,Hegel’s “Conceptual Speculation” contains five principles: the principle of Contradiction,the principle of Development,the Concrete principle,the Historical principle and the General principle.On the other hand,it contains the Subjective Freedom of “becoming a person”,which mainly concerns about “Transcending the nature”,“Sublating the separateness” and “Following the totality”.Second,“Will” is the research object of philosophy of right,which has the characteristics of “Doing”,“Motility”,“Hierarchy”,“Objectivity” and “Freedom”,etc.“Freedom of Will” is the fundamental theme of philosophy of right.Elements of the Philosophy of Right rationally constructs the concrete road of the Freedom of Will,which contains three links: “Abstract Right”,“Morality” and “Ethical Life”.Will refers to the “man of action”,and Freedom of Will contains important normative connotation.On the one hand,it contains the stipulation about the behavior principle of “how to act”,to be specific,“Acting with Ethics”.Philosophy of right systematically and rationally explains Hegel’s five ethical relationships: Man-Object,Man-Himself,Man-Family,Man-Society,and Man-State.On the other hand,it has the implication for stipulating the Substantive Freedom of “coexisting with others”,which is mainly for “Pursuing the‘substantial’ cause”,“Transcending atomism”,and “Building a community of human destiny”.Third,“Reason” is the soul of philosophy of history,which has the nature of“Being”,“Existence”,“Gradualness”,“Concreteness”,“Freedom” and so on.“Freedom of Reason” is an important proposition of Philosophy of History,which roughly describes the course of the realization of the Freedom of Reason,including the stages of “The Oriental World”,“The Greek World”,“The Roman World” and “The Germanic World”.Reason means “existing human beings”,and Freedom of Reason contains corresponding normative connotation.On the one hand,it contains provisions on the mode of “how to exist”,specifically “Existing with Spirit”.It takes “Freedom”as its basic aim,“Knowing” and “Doing” as its internal and external roads,“Rationality”as its basic principle,and “Mediation” as its important method.On the other hand,it implies the Freedom of Existence with the concrete stipulation of quality,quantity and degree,which containing the following enlightenment: “Freedom is the eternal ideal of human beings”;“The freedom of existence is always concrete and special”;“Speculative Logic” constitutes the practical wisdom of the realization of freedom.In summary,the spirit with the essential structure of “Knowing-Doing-Being”indicates that man is a “thinking”,“acting” and “historical” being.Hegel’s Freedom of Spirit essentially constitutes a systematic and unique theory of Human Freedom,and Hegel’s theory of freedom essentially constitutes an important analytical paradigm of freedom theory.