#7 What is Social Freedom? with Axel Honneth

Freedom is an idea that is strikingly common to the way we speak and think about the world and ourselves. We could even go so far as to claim that much of what we do in our lives is motivated by a drive for freedom. But despite the seemingly evident familiarity of this concept in everyday life and public discourse, it appears to be much more difficult to answer the question of what freedom actually is. Today’s guest, Axel Honneth, is Jack C. Weinstein Professor for the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University and Director of the Institute for Social Research at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. He claims that much of the philosophical tradition, as well as many contemporary debates, operate with a limited and deficient conception of freedom that needs to be replaced by what he calls social freedom.You can watch this episode on YouTube:https://youtu.be/07DfWWchFTECritical Concepts is an independently funded project, and we want to keep all of our content freely accessible. You can support us via Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/TheSaneSociety