Abstract

Distinguishing between the eternal idea of freedom and the changing types of consciousness of freedom in various stages of the history of society, Metzger asks the question: how are we to become conscious of this eternal ideal and realize it in an age of automation-produced, unprecedented dwindling of work and increase of leisure? The question is not answered in this book, however; perhaps the author's forthcoming Philosophie der Gesellschaft im gegenwärtigen Zeitalter will contribute to an answer.—J. J.