Abstract

I have elaborated the classical Marxian and Durkheimian conceptions of human freedom to serve as a foundation for understanding contemporary interest in human freedom as well as its relationship to other modern desires, such as a sense of community or solidarity. There is obviously no agreement regarding the lessons to be drawn from this discussion on human freedom and its relationship to the forces of modernization. This is reflected in the paradox that modernization is seen by many as liberating, and by others as that from which liberation is sought. In a purely descriptive account, both liberation quests are valid. The final issue, however, is not one of description but one of values.The limits to the reconciliation of freedom and community are contained within the limits of politics itself. One of the most influential aspects of the false consciousness of ideological politics is to deny the multidimensionality of politics in theory. Since Hegel, it appears that social theory can, in principle, resolve any contradiction, if only given sufficient time and reason. Nevertheless, sociopolitical action continually requires choices among ideals in ways not required of the symbolic action of social theorists. Our compelling task remains to search for and identify those socio-political arrangements that hold differing “payoffs” for efforts to build more humane institutions