Raymond Aron Freedom

Freedom has always been one of the basic problems in politics and sociology, andalso a basic problem which philosophy wants to solve. Raymond Aron as a famouscontemporary western philosopher and political theorist, he discusses the free problemsfrom the point of view of the social reality and political ethics combining with thewestern different social political systems and social ethics relation, which is differentfrom the past eudemonia ethicists who define the freedom to behavior and the will ormoral self-discipline, therefore, the freedom he thinks is really the operational freedom inthe life of realistic polity and social ethics, which purpose is how to achieve this freedomin real life, not just explore the essence of abstract as a kind of philosophy. Based on this,combined with the western social system and social ethics relation and based on theTocqueville and Marx’s view of freedom, Aron divided human freedom of the real lifeinto formal freedom and actual freedom, and discussed the way of how to achieve it by adialectical thinking way. Taking the influence of Marx and Tocqueville on RaymondAron as a point-cut and the text of the On Liberty as text basis, this paper discusses andrethinks comprehensively the ethics connotation of Aron’s free concept.Besides the introduction and conclusion, the main body of this paper includes fourchapters.The first chapter, Raymond Aron and on liberty. Firstly introduces Raymond Aron’slife, and the outline of his thought process and political thinking. Secondly discusses theera background and social roots of Raymond Aron’s view of freedom, and the writingbackground of on liberty.The second chapter, the main source of Raymond Aron’s view of freedom. Human’sfreedom thought has a long history, and is also continuous development in the heritage,predecessors thought is the basis of Aron’s thinking. Aristotle put forward “prudentchoice” in its practical philosophy, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas about the freedomand moral, freedom and faith question and Kant’s rational freedom have a great influenceon the formation of Aron’s view of freedom, but Tocqueville and Marx have the mostdirect influence on Raymond Aron whose idea comes straightly from reflection on Tocqueville and Marx’s freedom theory, in other words, his freedom idea is actually thecontinue with the extension of Tocqueville and Marx’s thought about freedom. On theother hand, his praise highly of America liberal democracy and his reflection on thesystem of the Soviet Union is also provide reality basis for his view of freedom.The third chapter, the ethical connotation and characteristics of Aron’s view offreedom. This chapter from three aspects to system discuss the main idea of Aron’s viewof freedom: the formal freedom on the principle of equality and actual freedom on theskopos theory; the contradiction and harmonic of the technical efficiency and individualfreedom; the ultimate goal of political liberty lies in the realization of individual freedomethical value. Based on this, we can conclude the basic characteristics of Aron’s view offreedom: the dualism on the liberty; the combination modern rationalism and the view ofmodern practice; theoretical compromise doctrine and practice of reformism. This part isthe key of the paper and also is the difficulty, I strive to protruding the true aggregates ofAron’s view of freedom by point of practice view.The fourth chapter, evaluate Raymond Aron’s view of freedom and its contemporaryvalue. Aron’s view of freedom has its own insurmountable defects，because he is alwaysstanding on the position of the bourgeoisies and showed a conservative attitude towardthe modern regression. As a historian, he showed a strong conservative attitude in thisbook which is a kind of backward state of mind. At the same time, formal freedom andactual freedom not only provide guidance for the western capitalist countries to achievehuman freedom, but also provide a basis for the construction of democratic system in ourcountry, which is Aron’s the value of his freedom theory and is also its charm for a longtime.