THE RATIO OF FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE IN CHRISTIANITY AND SECULAR RATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
Authors:   Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russia, Belyaev I.A. , Goncharova V.A. ,   Orenburg State Medical University, Orenburg, Russia, Maksimov A.M. ,   Orenburg, Russia
Published: March 2021

Freedom and independence are among those phenomena, the study of which never loses its relevance. We believe that in modern conditions, clarifying the relationship of the corresponding categories can significantly help people in their spiritual growth, identifying ways to freedom and independence. It is these circumstances that determine the purpose of the work, which is to study the relationship between freedom and independence in Christianity and social rational philosophy. The extensive use of extrapolation, analysis, comparison, and synthesis methods was used to achieve this goal. An appeal to the spiritual heritage of Augustine the Blessed, Thomas Aquinas, Abbot Filaret, A. I. Osipova, I. A. Ilyina and others allowed the authors to once again make sure that Christianity, which has its origins in social relations, does not form imaginary values in a person, does not lead him into a world of illusions. The work shows that, according to Christian ideas, freedom is based on faith and the inner spiritual life of a person, which he must strengthen, constantly appealing to divine essences. It is pointed out that the essence of the Christian understanding of freedom lies in «the ability to spontaneously begin a state» and the independence of the will from compulsion by impulses of sensuality; this circumstance, referring to I. Kant, is noted by Osipov. Independence, being a derivative of freedom, is formed, like it, on the basis of Christian values and manifests itself in a person’s desire to protect himself from the devil, evil and everything else that destroys his spirit and flesh. Considering the peculiarities of ideas about freedom and independence in social rational philosophy, the authors turn first of all to the Marxist philosophical heritage, to the views of Kant, G. V. F. Hegel and D. V. Pivovarova. Emphasis is placed on the features characteristic of these approaches. The Marxist vision of the problem under discussion is revealed through the analysis of a critical attitude to religion, belief in the proletariat, communism and the future kingdom of freedom, characteristic of the creators and supporters of the corresponding teaching. When studying the Kantian approach, attention is focused on the ideas about the relationship between man and God, on the moral side of human life. In Hegel’s dialectical views, through the analysis of true and untrue alienation and assimilation, the key aspects of the relationship between freedom and independence are revealed. Pivovarov’s definition of freedom, which contains a statement about the unhindered manifestation of the nature of anything, traces the idea of independence, characteristic of all representatives of rationalism, as a necessary condition for freedom. The idea of independence as a necessary condition for freedom, characteristic all representatives of rationalism, is traced in Pivovarov’s definition of freedom. The results of the authors’ philosophical search made it possible to verify the multidimensionality of the categories under study and the high significance of their understanding in relation to the search for ways to freedom and independence. The idea that unites the considered versions of the vision of freedom and independence is the belief in the power of the human mind, rejection of arbitrariness, orientation to higher spiritual values. The content of the article also shows that the comprehended pair of categories works well for both philosophical and non-philosophical comprehension of the essences of various fragments of being.