FERRUCCIO FOCHER

L'enigma della libertà (A proposito di Tocqueville)  

N. 2/1985

Summary — This essay deals with the problem of freedom, of willing and of doing, and takes a Tocqueville’s sentence as its starting point: "Qui cherche dans la liberté autre chose qu’elle-même est fait pour servir".

Freedom requires nobility of feelings. Why? The essay reviews philosophical and political reflections on freedom, from the discovery of the inner man by the apostle Paul, Epictetus and Augustine, the first philosopher of the will, up to the crisis of moral and political liberty in our age, characterized by the depreciation of man as individual to the advantage of community, understood as a mystic whole. From Hegel’s World Spirit to Lewis Thomas, who proposes to understand the world-wide community of human beings as a Giant Brain, philosophers and scientists are not satisfied with freedom and its awesome randomness. The essay, which, besides Tocqueville, takes into consideration several remarks by Kant, B Costant and H. Arendt, concludes by pointing out and analysing the strong connection that exists between freedom and religion, be it transcendent or immanent religion.