Freedom and the space of the possible

Freedom has many meanings. ∆ pays particular attention to the real space of possible actions: what a person is able to meaningfully choose, create and carry out under concrete conditions.

This approach complements the conversation about rights, independence and the absence of coercion. A formal possibility and the actual availability of an action can differ greatly.

Possibility requires conditions

For an act to become available, it may take knowledge, time, health, trust, money, tools, legal protection and the participation of other people. Lacking a single condition can make impossible a decision that in words seems a free choice.

That is why widening the possible can happen through developing skills, removing barriers, changing the rules of interaction, creating technologies and supporting collaboration.

Number of options and quality of freedom

A larger number of formal options does not always increase the capacity to act. An excess of decisions can bring overload, and a choice between unacceptable alternatives leaves a person in a hard position.

What matters is the quality of the options, their consequences, the subject's awareness and the real possibility of refusing an imposed decision.

Boundaries and transformation

Limitations exist at different levels. Some can be reduced by one's own action, others require collective effort or changes to the environment, and still others have to be taken as given in a specific situation.

Investigating boundaries includes honestly acknowledging what is out of reach. The position of ∆ does not require believing that every limit can be overcome. It proposes not treating the current situation as final without sufficient grounds.

Freedom and relationships

One participant's freedom is connected with the freedom of others. A project that strengthens the possibilities of some at the cost of depriving others of subjecthood calls for critical examination. Mutual obligations can limit particular acts while widening the possibilities of trust, collaboration and long-term work.

Independence does not exclude taking part in shared rules, if they are open to discussion, justified and allow revision.

Development without a universal finale

∆ sets no maximal state that everyone must reach. A new possibility can come with the loss of another; some directions are incompatible; goals may change. That is why development is considered in the context of a specific subject and their circumstances.

Openness to the future implies the right to one's own pace, to pauses and to revising the chosen path.

Related topics: ontological bearings, self-sovereignty, agency.