Need and (In-)Sufficient Freedom. On the Normative Semantics of Lack in Theories of Social Freedom

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Juliane Rebentisch
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy ; History of Philosophy
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 517830661

The formation, interpretation and satisfaction of needs play a crucial role in the reality of freedom. This is the working hypothesis of the research project. To grasp the connection between need and freedom in this way is not self-evident. If the relationship between need and freedom is addressed, often one of two problems occurs: Either needs are conceived in a strictly individualistic way so that the normativity of needs can no longer be grasped, or needs are conceived in an anthropological-naturalistic framework, in which the sociohistorical specificity of practices of need satisfaction gets out of sight. The research project shares the current critique of the individualistic exclusion of the normativity of needs. It follows the conviction that normative discourses around needs and their satisfaction must be reflected in theories of freedom. However, to avoid the naturalistic reduction of the concept of need, the research project will shift to the concept of 'social freedom' as a frame of reference. This approach also eliminates a blind spot in current theories of social freedom, in which needs have been mentioned only marginally so far. An inquiry into the philosophies of G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, which are central to the concept of social freedom, shows that an important desideratum for the theory of social freedom lies in the discussion of needs. In their work, we find elements of a social theory of needs that explains the normative content of needs through their social form. Based on the discussion of three diagnoses of unfreedom — Hegel's problem of the rabble, Marx's critique of alienation, and Horkheimer and Adorno's theory of the culture industry — the research project will integrate these set pieces into a theory of the normativity of social needs. The goal is to develop a concept of social freedom that reflexively incorporates the negotiation of social needs: accordingly, in this approach, the social articulation of needs and their satisfaction is considered not just a condition of freedom but an expression of freedom itself.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants