The Freedom Paradox: Towards A Post-Secular Ethics by Clive Hamilton (PDF)

Description

In this book, Hamilton forms a radical reconsideration of the meaning of freedom in the modern world, and a proposal for what he calls a “post-secular ethics”—an ethics to supercede the mores of the post-1968 Western world. Despite all of the personal and political freedoms we now enjoy in the West, Clive argues that our “inner freedom,” our very human capacity for considered will and the very ethical basis of our society, has been compromised by our relentless focus on impulse and immediate gratification. Drawing on the great metaphysical philosophers Kant and Schopenhauer, Hamilton develops a new theory of morality for our times. He argues that true inner freedom and acting according to moral law are one and the same, and essential to reaching psychological maturity.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐On p. 85 Hamilton asserts that it is the erosion of inner freedom “that explains the widespread unhappiness and alienation that characterize societies that are otherwise free and wealthy.” I regard that assertion as UTTER NONSENSE!What Hamilton doesn’t seem to recognize is that humans are BIOLOGICAL creatures, and that, as David P. Barash noted (pp. 318 – 324 of his 1977 Sociobiology and Behavior), during the Agricultural Revolution a “discrepancy” began to develop between (a) the way of life for which humans had become “designed,” and (b) the new ways of life that then began to develop. That is, because our biology remained basically the same (“tortoise”—alluding to his 1988 The Hare and the Tortoise) while changes in way of life (“hare”) were occurring, this created problems for humans. In fact, one could argue that virtually all human problems that developed subsequently were traceable to the “Fall” into agriculture (as Warren Johnson put in his 1979 Muddling Toward Frugality, p. 43).Using an approach that looks especially to philosophers—Kant and Schopenhauer, in particular—for ideas has led Hamilton to produce a book that has virtually no value.I will continue to read in the book in the hope that I will find SOMETHING of value in it at some point, but my expectations are extremely LOW—and my copy of the book will be consigned to the recycle box soon. Fortunately, I didn’t pay much for the book!

⭐A superb book. I’ve read it three times. The first third was straight forward, but from there on, it really got me thinking, had me challenged and left me pondering.

⭐One of the most important books out there nowadays. Very interesting.

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