The happy slave isn't free: Relational autonomy and freedom in the Zhuangzi

被引:6
|
作者
Valmisa, Mercedes [1 ]
机构
[1] Gettysburg Coll, Dept Philosophy, Gettysburg, PA 17325 USA
来源
PHILOSOPHY COMPASS | 2019年 / 14卷 / 03期
关键词
D O I
10.1111/phc3.12569
中图分类号
B [哲学、宗教];
学科分类号
01 ; 0101 ;
摘要
This paper challenges the view that contentment leads to personal freedom and autonomy and argues for a relational and exercise concept of de facto freedom in the Zhuangzi <SIC>offspring. I first review influential interpretations of freedom in the Zhuangzi that equate freedom with contentment and nonfrustration, starting with Guo Xiang's &(sic) (d. 312 CE). By putting these interpretations in dialog with contemporary social philosophy (Christman, Meyers, Pettit, Elster, and Khader), I reflect on the two seminal problems of the psychologizing causal and procedural approaches that allow the interpretation of freedom as contentment: the "happy slave" problem and the "sour grapes" problem. Proving this account of freedom inadequate, I argue for a different interpretation of freedom in the Zhuangzi that resembles a weakly substantive and constitutive account of freedom and autonomy in modern-day social philosophy terms, such as Marina Oshana's. The theory of freedom that I analyze in the Zhuangzi, however, helps us correct the risk of material determinism of the constitutive account, offering a description of relational freedom and autonomy as constituted by socio-material conditions but not determined by them.
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页数:15
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