Freedom consists in being a singularity, not an individual person
Evidence
Pure immanence is the void, which can neither be psychologized nor subjectivized. Immanent life is lighter and richer - indeed, freer - for such emptiness. The idiot is not defined by individuality or subjectivity, but by singularity. As such, the idiot is similar in nature to the child, who is not yet an individual, not yet a person. The child’s existence is not determined by individual qualities so much as impersonal events: For example, very small children all resemble one another and have hardly any individuality, but they have singularities: a smile, a gesture, a funny face - not subjective qualities. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 194
Categorization
- XREF: The singular-vs-individual distinction carries the whole weight of Han’s politics here, rehearsing his earlier chapters on the death of the other and the subject’s liberation into empty time. — connects to: Freedom is practiced by killing psychology to create unnamed individualities — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 180; Freedom means choosing oneself within one’s world, not choosing the world itself.; Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1146 (+7 more)
Related
- Freedom precedes essence and is indistinguishable from being human (similarity 0.84)
- Freedom means choosing oneself within one’s world, not choosing the world itself. (similarity 0.83)
- Freedom constitutes my being rather than attaching to it as a property (similarity 0.83)
- Freedom requires choosing one’s own essence, not merely one’s acts (similarity 0.82)
- Freedom is the for-itself’s permanent ability to nihilate its own being (similarity 0.82)
- Freedom is synonymous with the for-itself’s lack of being (similarity 0.81)
- Freedom is identical with the for-itself’s nothingness expressed as temporality, self-presence, and transcendence (similarity 0.81)
- Freedom is the being that makes itself a lack of being through desire (similarity 0.81)
- Freedom means autonomy of choice, not success in obtaining one’s ends. (similarity 0.80)
- The Other’s freedom is the sole separation between my self and the Other (similarity 0.80)
- Freedom is only real once it chooses its own finitude. (similarity 0.80)
- Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be (similarity 0.80)
- Freedom exists only as engaged, self-choosing action, never as undetermined potential (similarity 0.80)
- Freedom’s only limit is itself; we cannot choose not to be free (similarity 0.79)
- Freedom is the nihilation of a being it is, not something added later. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Freedom means choosing oneself within one’s world, not choosing the world itself.
#qualifies(0.85) - Freedom is the for-itself’s permanent ability to nihilate its own being
#expands(0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1075 - Freedom chooses its being but cannot choose not to be
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1146 - Freedom can be reconceived as non-domination rather than non-interference or self-mastery
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 1207 - Freedom as non-domination, unlike non-interference, cannot be fully enjoyed by one person alone
#corroborates(0.80) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 1239 - Individual freedom is achieved only through the freedom of others
#complicates(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 144 - Freedom cannot choose itself and thus creates things and situation.
#expands(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1205 - Others’ freedom is the condition of, not a limit on, my own freedom
#complicates(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 91 - Modern individuality values being this specific irreplaceable person, not mere freedom
#corroborates(0.75)