Sartre ve Kantta Özgürlük ve Etik

Abstract

Taking freedom as the basis of their views on ethics, society and politics, is the major common point between I. Kant who is a philosopher of the eighteenth century although has a significant place with his thoughts that shed light on the problems of our time and J. P. Sartre who discountenanced in many societies because of his extreme ideas about freedom. Nevertheless, approaching the problem of human freedom from different angles, in the first place, has led philospohers to reach different results in the field of ethics. According to Kant, every member of the human species as an intelligent being, has the ability of act independently from natural causality - the bio-psychic needs, inclinations, desire to pleasure or the impulse to avoid pain- only as prescribed by his mind. This ability of human beings that indicates the conditions of person’s freedom and named as ‘negative freedom’ by Kant, when executed by the persons who can act according to the law –the moral law- , takes the name of ‘positive freedom’ and becomes a feature of these persons. However, returning to the phase of the discussion about the problem of freedom before Kant, Sartre has focused on the question ‘is human being free’ and described freedom as an existential feature of human who is a consious being. By claiming that there is not any difference between being human and being free, has overlooked the differences between people in terms of positive freedom. As can be seen in his work Being and Nothingness, previously, Sartre has thought that it is possible to explain every single human actions by consciousness and the sense of responsibility created by the conscious existence of mankind, will force him to do the right thing in ethical sense. Afterwards, without changing his definition of freedom, Sartre has understood that the person’s taking responsibility of the actions he performed freely, will not provide the morality of the action and, just as Kant, has taken the quest of a principle that can be used as a measure to one’s actions.