Love, Trust, and Self-realization: The Frankfurtian Alternative to the Dilemma of Freedom

Abstract

In Freedom. A Civil Pamphlet, Carlos Pereda raises a central dilemma in relation to the possible interpretations of the overdetermined value of freedom —either freedom is understood as authenticity or it is assumed as autonomy. The simplest model of the first alternative posits a hierarchical structure of desires and is often linked to the early work of Harry Frankfurt. In the analysis that follows, I will try to show that the introduction of the notion of love allows us to consider the Frankfurtian perspective as a version that overcomes the dilemma between autonomy and authenticity by advancing in a third way: the idea of freedom as self-realization, that is, as the development of the capacity to love that allows people to outline and pursue certain final ends.