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Informed Autonomy: Conceptualization of Freedom in the Digital Age

Authors:
  • International Peace Bureau

Abstract

Seeking a reliable set of principles to understand freedom, we should answer basic questions: what is freedom, how to be free, why it is important, for whom, when, and where. Some answers to these questions can be found intuitively in a feeling of liberty. Other answers are found by reasoning, such as the concept of autonomy, i.e., self-rule, or intrinsic law, connecting individual and universal meanings of freedom. Many answers are practical, as should be the case in the age of science and technologies, which help us to rise above ourselves in many ways, such as progressive welfare policies and procedural justice. Some practical answers turn autonomy into an instrument of structural violence: consider ‘consumer autonomy’ to make choices suggested by manipulative marketing, or ‘labor autonomy’ to work more and earn less under cunning management, or ‘user autonomy’ in filter bubbles of social media. To resist alienation of freedom, people need to know the practical meaning of autonomy and the consequences of their choices. The historical development of autonomy from morality through ethics to the law is similar to the history of social worldviews, which evolves from religion through philosophy to science. The laws of nature repeated by objects of experiments reveal the autonomy of matter, and human laws performed in legal culture reveal the autonomy of will. In a model of law as a self-processing rule, any process and its elements are considered autonomous, like the human right to peace realized in processes of meditation, which brings inner peace, and mediation which ensures interactional peace. Notions of inalienable rights help to preserve autonomy in any system of coordinates: it is self-ownership for capitalism, self-determination for determinism, self-programming for technocracy, etc. True freedom should be informed autonomy, active and peaceful self-creation, empowered in our digital age by open access to practical knowledge, and driving human evolution in all economic, political, cultural, and other contexts.
Yurii Sheliazhenko
Research Associate at the Faculty of Law
KROK University (Kyiv, Ukraine)
sheliazhenkoiuv@krok.edu.ua
Informed Autonomy:
Conceptualization of Freedom
in the Digital Age
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Seeking a reliable set of principles to understand freedom, we should
answer basic questions: what is freedom, how to be free, why it is
important, for whom, when, and where. Some answers to these
questions can be found intuitively in a feeling of liberty. Other answers
are found by reasoning, such as the concept of autonomy, i.e., self-rule,
or intrinsic law, connecting individual and universal meanings of
freedom. Many answers are practical, as should be the case in the age
of science and technologies, which help us to rise above ourselves in
many ways, such as progressive welfare policies and procedural justice.
Some practical answers turn autonomy into an instrument of structural
violence: consider ‘consumer autonomy’ to make choices suggested by
manipulative marketing, or ‘labor autonomy’ to work more and earn
less under cunning management, or ‘user autonomy’ in filter bubbles of
social media. To resist alienation of freedom, people need to know the
practical meaning of autonomy and the consequences of their choices.
The historical development of autonomy from morality through ethics
to the law is similar to the history of social worldviews, which evolves
from religion through philosophy to science. The laws of nature
repeated by objects of experiments reveal the autonomy of matter,
and human laws performed in legal culture reveal the autonomy of
will. In a model of law as a self-processing rule, any process and its
elements are considered autonomous, like the human right to peace
realized in processes of meditation, which brings inner peace, and
mediation which ensures interactional peace. Notions of inalienable
rights help to preserve autonomy in any system of coordinates: it is
self-ownership for capitalism, self-determination for determinism, self-
programming for technocracy, etc. True freedom should be informed
autonomy, active and peaceful self-creation, empowered in our digital
age by open access to practical knowledge, and driving human
evolution in all economic, political, cultural, and other contexts.
Developed by Yurii Sheliazhenko during Ph.D. research in KROK University and partly during the study in the KROK Business School at the Master's Program in Mediation and
Conflict Management, which is part of the project "Mediation: Training and Society Transformation/ MEDIATS" co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Informed autonomy: conceptualization of freedom in the digital age
Knowledge of freedom is insufficient: there
are unanswered and paradoxical questions,
contradictions in practical reasoning
Law is a common source of knowledge
about freedom
I consider the historical evolution of law
and the autonomous processual model of
law to explain the concept of freedom
What do I know about freedom?
Laws of nature and society are parts of
one universal law
Normative/empirical freedom/necessity
Free movement: in human rights law,
also in mechanics (Newton, Hobbes)
Degrees of freedom in politics and
thermodynamics
Universality of Law
Repeating forms of objects and events
Observation: freedom from action
Experiment: freedom of (re)action
Autonomy of will (Kant) and autonomy
of matter (Yurkevich)
Atom of law; balance point between
unit and unity, element and system
Autonomy: Freedom of Existence
Freedom f is an amount of causal existence, or (in)action.
Responsibility r measures consequential existence, or reaction.
Right R ( f ) = r links freedom with empirical responsibility.
Duty D ( f )= r links freedom with normative responsibility.
Law is a balance of autonomous rights and duties R ( f ) = D ( f ).
Law as authoritative command (Austin, Wilson)
or coercive rule of human behavior (Kelsen): law
alienates freedom from a subject of law
Law as social contract (Hobbes, Kant): the law
alienates freedom from individual subject of law
in favor of greater individual, political community
Law as process of justice (Pound, Rawls): law is
honest description of life and way to improve it
with fairness, personal/group autonomy, equality
Freedom in Political Models of Law
Autonomous Processual Model of Law
Model of freedom from the conflict between a person and law
The model is suitable both for natural and political law
Law is practically proven idea of what should be observed,
self-organized order, self-processing rule embedded in reality
Law determines and is determined by autonomous legal
processes (events, systems) and their autonomous elements,
individual objects and persons (individuals with interests)
Personal autonomy is an attribute of every actor in the sphere
of law able to represent/perform/change the law; it can be any
natural or artificial (moral, legal) person regardless of her, his,
or its private or public character, including the human person
(individual/group/people), organization, or artificial intelligence
Human right to peace. Freedom via dynamic peace.
Peaceful communication as direct democracy
Process of mediation: interactional peace in assisted
collective decision-making and voluntary compliance
Process of meditation: inner peace through freedom
of thought, self-control, personal autonomy
Non-coercive order, justice, law enforcement, security
Nonviolent resistance to injustice and aggression
Autonomy, Peace, and Mediation
Historical Stages in Evolution of Law
Morality: beliefs about the good and the evil; norms are
mixed with facts; plain/customary justice
Ethics: philosophy of rights and duties; norms reflect and
reproduce good facts; ritual/formal justice
Law: legal science, practical knowledge of rules and order;
norms determine and create facts; procedural/social justice
Binary thinking (like free/unfree) at the stage
of morality; the feeling or intuitive perception
of freedom may be wrong
Formalities (like consent) and rituals (like
voting) at the stage of ethics; almost useless
without essential knowledge
Techniques (like contract) at the stage of law;
risk of alienation, manipulation, exploitation of
consumer, employee, user, etc.
How far we developed freedom?
Church claimed moral monopoly, which
was ended by knowledge of philosophy
Guilds claimed ethical monopoly, which
was ended by technical knowledge
Governments and corporations claim legal
monopoly. Will it be ended by knowledge
of non-coercive law and governance?
Knowledge Empowers Freedom
Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and
inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the
foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world (Universal
Declaration of Human Rights)
Homo Sapiens means Reasonable One; freedom of information
is needed from personal development; education should be
liberated from coercive and punitive elements and strengthened
by rewards for completion of individual and collective missions
Individual is basic unit of law; inalienable rights are universal law
embedded in reality; personal development resists alienation
Personal autonomy should be upheld in any system: it is self-
ownership for capitalism, self-determination for determinism,
self-programming for technocracy, etc.
Keep Human Rights Inalienable
What is freedom? Universal law of existence per se,
motion, and evolution; informed autonomy.
How to be free? Know yourself and reality around.
Why it is important, for whom, when, and where?
To protect the inalienable rights of everyone,
everything, everywhere, anytime to peaceful
existence, development, and justice.
What about paradoxes? Freedom can't be more
illusory than any denial of it.
Conclusion
I am a being who, by a long and
arduous road, has discovered how to
make intelligence master natural
obstacles, how to live in freedom
and joy, at peace with myself and
therefore with all mankind.
Bertrand Russell
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell
Freedom is always a negotiation.
The image of complete freedom
is the image of the state of nature.
Quentin Skinner
Philosophically speaking about freedom
In working out the conception of
justice as fairness one main task
clearly is to determine which
principles of justice would be chosen
in the original position... it may be
helpful to observe that one or more
persons can at any time enter this
position, or perhaps better, simulate
the deliberations of this hypothetical
situation, simply by reasoning...
John Rawls
A Theory of Justice
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