We are Free... More or Less – On the Systematic Development of Degrees of Freedom

Abstract

Referring to the perpetual stereotype of the history of philosophy on the question of human freedom, answered with a simple “yes” or “no”, this text aims to present an approach that allows to answer the question with “more or less”. For this purpose, the concept of “degrees of freedom” focused on this approach unfolds in three different dimensions of which the first is based on different cognitive levels. The second dimension distinguishes four phases of action – and therefore phases of freedom – and, finally, in the third place, is accomplished a dimensioning and graduation relative to the different levels of psychological development. In the last section, the heuristic value of these individual dimensioning in relation to the problem of staggering liability is illustrated through an example.