Freedom of will is the necessary foundation for civilization

Evidence

The freedom of will is the existential bone structure that carries the moral flesh of every promise, and my insistence on its integrity is not an indulgence in nostalgia or a random privileging of the pre-digital human story as somehow more truly human. This is the only kind of freedom that we can guarantee ourselves, no matter the weight of entropy or inertia, and irrespective of the forces and fears that attempt to collapse time into an eternity of shadowboxing now, and now, and now. These bones are the necessary condition for the possibility of civilization as a “moral milieu” that favors the dignity of the individual and respects the distinctly human capacities for dialogue and problem solving. Any person, idea, or practice that breaks these bones and tears this flesh robs us of a self-authored and we-authored future. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1041

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Rhetorically elevated but the underlying claim—will as necessary condition for a moral civilization—is a dense philosophical position worth sitting with.
• XREF: connects to: A more profound freedom than will underlies all volitional acts; Political freedom is impossible without economic freedom — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 407; Freedom is meaningful only as engaged by free choice of ends (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• A more profound freedom than will underlies all volitional acts #qualifies (0.85)
• Freedom is meaningful only as engaged by free choice of ends #expands (0.85)
• Freedom requires choosing one’s own essence, not merely one’s acts #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1126
• Christian Reconstructionism reconceived freedom as submission to hierarchical authority #contradicts (0.85) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 175
• Freedom is the for-itself’s permanent ability to nihilate its own being #qualifies (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1075
• Freedom is the human capacity to put beings out of circuit behind a nothingness #qualifies (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 225
• Political freedom is impossible without economic freedom #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 407
• Ordinary people must proclaim their right to the future #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 176