Post-Kantian European Philosophy Seminar (Tuesday - Week 8, MT21)

This paper offers an analytic reconstruction of Sartre’s theory of radical freedom. On its most plausible formulation, freedom is radical, because the freely chosen act and the grounds for choice are co-dependent. The freely chosen act partly determines the grounds, while the grounds partly determine the choice. Nonetheless, since every choice is made ‘in situation’ there can be constraint on choice. Such constraint becomes intelligible once we understand that, on Sartre’s view, freedom is embodied: It is our embodiment, broadly construed, which is the most important characteristic of our situation.

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