Parkhomenko, P. N. The Idea of Freedom at the Age of Renaissance and Modern Times

Abstract: In this review the author would like to continue to analyze the genesis of the idea of freedom in the West European philosophy. After touching upon the initial concepts of freedom created at the Ancient Times and Middle Ages as discussed in the article ‘The Concept of the Idea of Freedom in Ancient and Medieval philosophy’ published in the Philosophy and Culture Journal in 2013, the author of the article appeals to the philosophers of the Renaissance and Modern Times. The most important achievement of the Modern Times was the creation of the new concept in metaphysics. That concept viewed freedom and free will as one of the fundamental features of the individual’s life. For the first time in history the man himself determined the rules and his behavior. Later the principle of autonomic activity of a person was developed in the New European philosophy within the framework of the activity of a person who is free in what he thinks and what he says. Therefore, philosophy turned into ‘metaphysics of practical reason’ where the self-sufficient human activity appeared to be the experience of new freedom. Progressive transference of focus from the external world to the internal world created grounds for Freud’s theory of unconsciousness. Fichte and Schelling interpreted freedom in terms of the relation between the consciousness and unconsciousness which was the fundamental difference between romantic philosophy and ‘standard’ philosophy of the age of Enlightenment. At the age of Enlightenment freedom and human reasoning were identical terms. Back in those times the concept of freedom was mostly viewed from the point of view of the relation between an individual and his surroundings.

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