Humans must commit to ethical action without certainty of consequences

Evidence

In keeping with Beauvoir’s views, Freire contends that to be human is to exist as an ethical being (Freire, 1998a). As reflective beings facing an uncertain world, we must decide what to do; we must exercise the distinctive responsibilities we have as humans and commit, even though we can never be certain of quite what will happen as we act in the world. As Beauvoir recognized, and as Freire also acknowledges, this can be unsettling and distressing, but it is also the basis of our freedom. The ethical dimension of human existence is, Freire would add, also the foundation for our formation as educational beings. Freire, like Beauvoir, does not equate freedom with license; he speaks of the need for limits to freedom, consistent with the principle of ensuring, as far as reasonably possible, that our actions as free beings do not to impede the pursuit of humanization by others. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 889

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ch15’s claim that Freire held hope as an ontological need — acting in uncertainty is the ethical ground of that hope. — connects to: Beauvoir grounded ethics in situated particulars rather than abstract universal rules — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 880; Ethics can act against destruction without aiming at any final harmony — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 669; Humans commit and act despite imperfect information about the future — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1063 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Defines how Freire constrains freedom with the principle of not impeding others’ humanization — against ‘anything goes’ license.

Broader Connections

• Humans commit and act despite imperfect information about the future #exemplifies (0.90) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1063
• Ethics can act against destruction without aiming at any final harmony #exemplifies (0.80) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 669