Review The Freedom Paradox
The Freedom Paradox
Social Commentator Clive Hamilton in his book The Freedom Paradox provides a valuable addition to a body of writing that is emerging in ‘popular’ philosophy – exposing the fallacies and failings of secular post-modern consumer society; and offering an alternative ‘way of being’ (that he labels 'post secular').
All this is delivered in an anecdotal style accessible to the average coffee-sipping punter in the trendy café.
Hamilton’s Paradox is the idea that, in the process of actively pursuing ‘freedom’ as an end, contemporary society is taking itself away from the ‘inner freedom’ that it so needs.
Your average Christian will feel affirmed by this proposition – after all it is a message consistent with most faith positions – and in Part One of the book Hamilton provides a useful way of reconsidering notions of freedom that is very helpful for any Christian.
Hamilton urges us to distinguish between three perspectives on life – the ‘pleasant life’ of consumerism, the ‘good life’ of personal accomplishments, and ‘the meaningful life’ of commitment to a higher good.
The second part of Hamilton’s book is devoted to developing his metaphysical framework – a way of looking at reality. This is the most challenging section, as readers are briskly marched through the works of Kant, Schopenhauer and others to gain a complex understanding of the distinction between the the phenomenon (the world as it appears in time space and causality) and the noumenon (the timeless, spaceless, causeless world as it really is).
I don’t advise attempting this section whilst watching the cricket but persist, as one gains an excellent set of ideas and concepts!
From here the book becomes challenging to Christians as Hamilton, although affirming as necessary the commitment to a ‘reality beyond perceptions, quite ‘matter-of-factly’ asserts his perceived shortcomings of most religious traditions including Christianity. However, he is reasonably even-handed in his critique, being just as critical of rationalist philosophers: Kant and Rawls, existentialists such as Sartre, and scientific rationalists such as Dawkins.
Perhaps (or I may be reading my own personal bias into this) he saves his bluntest criticism for the post-moderns and the self-driven consumer society that they have spurned.
The rest of the book is devoted to outlining an ethical response to the world based on his metaphysics. He touches some of the usual topics – sex, suicide, the environment, aesthetics – but doesn’t dwell much on medical ethics (although his framework could be so adapted).
He advocates a mix of ‘masculine ethics’ and ‘feminine ethics’ and much of what he writes seems heavily influenced by the modern ‘virtue ethicists’ (in turn inspired by the Greek philosophers) as well as a good dose of Buddhist philosophy!
Whilst Christians will find much of the book confronting, and will often find themselves ‘arguing with it’ as they read, it is a very rewarding experience.
One will come out with a more nuanced ‘big picture’ of the development of ethical thought, a faith position and ethical outlook that is all the better for being challenged, and, most importantly, a framework for engaging in a conversation that challenges the scientific fundamentalists and the post modern consumers to a ‘reality check’ that just may knock a few scales from a few eyes!
The Freedom Paradox by Clive Hamilton. Allen & Unwin 2008, paperback 274 pp. RRP $35
Review by Simon Bennett