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Autonomy, an ethics of freedom, and the question of answerability
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Barry, Lucy Clare (2019) Autonomy, an ethics of freedom, and the question of answerability. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3517275
Abstract
This thesis has two interrelated parts. Firstly, articulating an account of human autonomy and exploring the possibility of an ethics of freedom, I argue that the radical existentialism propounded by Sartre is both intellectually credible, and morally responsible.
Secondly, I consider whether this conception of autonomy is adequate to human self-understanding, or whether we need, in some sense, to be answerable to something transcendent. Historically, philosophers addressing this question have either: appealed to some conceptually graspable domain grounding values or norms, eg. mainstream religious theology; or supposed a putative external ground to be ineffable or mysterious. However, I suggest that this need can be met from within a broadly humanist position, thus making existentialism liveable.
In making this case, I consider how metaphor can allow us to surpass concepts and literal language. Additionally, some theories claim that use of metaphor can result in an instance of something unprecedented. I analyse these radical, creative theories, to establish whether metaphors can be considered as potentially productive of meaning, and what kind of innovation this implies.
If creative metaphors can produce something unprecedented, complex questions arise: how do new objects, events or ideas issue from human activities? Can something be radically new, and yet intelligible? I address these questions, concluding that both questions can be answered affirmatively.
Returning to answerability, I argue that in artistic processes, humans can experience a sense of creative responsibility that encounters/responds to real resistance. This resistance is experienced as originating from outside us, and it is this that we are answerable to. In our appeal to it for a sense of ‘rightness’, we acknowledge that it is not only other than, but somehow greater than us. In the aesthetic object we find an exemplar of freedom and self-determination, experiencing our significance in something against which to measure ourselves.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Autonomy (Philosophy), Liberty -- Philosophy, Existentialism, Metaphor | ||||
| Official Date: | September 2019 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Theses Department: | Department of Philosophy | ||||
| Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
| Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Poellner, Peter ; John, Eileen | ||||
| Format of File: | |||||
| Extent: | 174 leaves : illustrations | ||||
| Language: | eng |
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