Freedom, not happiness, is the measure of human possibility
Evidence
This means that in focusing on the individual’s possibilities, we will define these possibilities not in terms of happiness but in terms of freedom. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 64
Categorization
- DEFINE: The normative criterion for the whole investigation: possibilities are to be assessed by freedom, not happiness.
- APHORISMS: A distilled moral principle: judge lives and situations by the freedom they afford, never by the contentment they contain.
- XREF: connects to: Possibility is a concrete property of already existing beings, not a subjective construct — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 378; The human race is constituted by free individual choices, not vice versa — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1222; Marcuse argued individual happiness requires the universal attainment of positive freedom — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 238 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Objective possibility constitutes freedom but requires knowing and wanting
#expands(0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1285 - Freedom means choosing oneself within one’s world, not choosing the world itself.
#expands(0.85) - Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be
#complicates(0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1146 - Freedom is synonymous with the for-itself’s lack of being
#complicates(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1328 - Individual freedom is achieved only through the freedom of others
#complicates(0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 144 - Freedom and situation are mutually constituting rather than opposites
#qualifies(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1164