Omniversal Liberty

Authors

  • Thomas Crowther Durham University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v22i2.21475

Keywords:

Liberty, Omniverse, Universal, Modernity, Freedom, Autonomy

Abstract

‘Liberty’, as a word, is thrown about contemporary society as casually as a ball is on a summer’s day, and yet, does anyone have a grasp on what it is? If it is freedom from limitation, then liberty must represent nothing less than consciousness without restraint. But though this straightforward definition implies its acquisition to be equally straightforward, the full spectrum of liberty would certainly prove to be one of the most elusive concepts imaginable. As a result, what we have, and what we throw about so indifferently, is a Substitute - a poor kind of replica of the real thing. True liberty - Omniversal liberty - is much less tangible however, and represents the equilibrium that occurs when anything is possible, but where the capacity to ever allow one possibility to dominate over another becomes impossible to maintain.

Author Biography

  • Thomas Crowther, Durham University

    Thomas Crowther has recently gained his PhD at the University of Durham, UK. His interests are diverse, ranging from political and social philosophy, to anthropological studies relating to modern consumerism and the emergence of enterprise culture, to British Prehistoric and Industrial archaeology.

References

Ambler, Rex. 1996. “The Self and Postmodernity.” In Postmodernity, Sociology and Religion, edited by Kieran Flanagan and Peter Jupp, 134–151. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.

Baudrillard, Jean. 1983. Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge and Kegan.

Bowman, Marion. 1981. “The Noble Savage and the Global Village: Cultural Evolution in New Age and Neo-Pagan Thought.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 10: 139–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537909508580734

Durkheim, Émile. 1984. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.

———. 1992. Professional Ethics and Civic Morals. London: Routledge.

———. 1994. Durkheim on Religion. London: Routledge.

———. 1995. The Elementary Forms of Life. New York: Free Press.

Featherstone, Mike. 1991. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage.

Foucault, Michel. 1988. Technologies of the Self: Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, edited by Patrick Hutton, Luther Martin and Huck Gutman, 16–49. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Gellner, Ernest. 1994. Encounters with Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell.

Heelas, Paul. 1991. “Reforming the Self: Enterprise and the Characters of Thatcherism.” In Enterprise Culture, edited by Nicholas Abercrombie and Russell Keat, 72–90. London: Routledge.

———. 1996. The New Age Movement. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Hervieu-Leger, Danièle. 2001. “Individualism, the Validation of Faith, and the Social Nature of Religion in Modernity.” In The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion, edited by Richard Fenn, 161–175. Oxford: Blackwell.

Kant, Immanuel. 1971 [1784]. “An Answer to the Question: “What is Enlightenment?’.” In Kant’s Political Writings, ed. Hans Reiss, 54–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Keat, Russell. 1991. “Introduction.” In Enterprise Culture, edited by Nicholas Abercrombie and Russell Keat, 1–17. London: Routledge.

Key, Ellen. 1909. The Century of the Child. New York: London.

Langman, Lauren. 1992. “Neon Cages: Shopping for Subjectivity.” In Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption, edited by Rob Shields, 40–82. London: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203413074_chapter_3

Morgan, Lewis. 1877. Ancient Society. New York: Holt.

Rees, John. 1985. John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Slater, Don. 1997. Consumer Culture and Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Spencer, Herbert. 1870. The Principles of Psychology. London: Williams and Norgate.

Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

———. 1991. The Ethics of Authenticity. London: Harvard University Press.

Tilley, Chrisopher. 2006. “Introduction: Identity, Place, Landscape and Heritage.” Journal of Material Culture 11: 7–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1359183506062990

Tylor, Edward. 1871. Primitive Culture. New York: Harper.

Published

2015-04-17

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Crowther, T. (2015). Omniversal Liberty. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, 22(2), 119–136. https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v22i2.21475