Abstract

This study traces the role of the concept of freedom as the fundamental motif of the thought of Nicolas Berdyaev. The task of this study is to explore why and how the concept of freedom is the fundamental motif in Berdyaev's whole philosophical system. This study finds the concept of freedom as the key for the exposition of Berdyaev's philosophy. The basic thrust of this study is to probe what kind of role this concept of freedom played and how it worked in developing Berdyaev's epistemology, doctrine of God, Christology, anthropology, ethics, philosophy of history, and eschatology. ;In his theory of knowledge, Berdyaev emphasizes the primacy of freedom as the essential condition of an existential subject. Knowledge is an activity of the free spirit and it is grounded in freedom. The notion of the primacy of freedom over being is fundamental to understanding Berdyaev's metaphysics. Both God and man are boundlessly free. Freedom lies outside God; freedom is uncreated. If freedom be only God's creature, the drama between God and man is not real life but play-acting. The fundamental nature of man as a personality is freedom. Christ conclusively revealed for the first time the existence of the principles of freedom. Berdyaev's ethics lays stress on the radically individual, unique, and unrepeatable character of moral situations and moral values. Ethical freedom means not so much obeying moral law as creating moral values. Freedom is the metaphysical basis of history. The structure of history is impossible without the postulate of a freely-acting subject determining the historical destinies of mankind. Tragedy arises from the mystery of freedom, from which evil as well as good arises. The meaning of history can only be found beyond time. ;Berdyaev's philosophy has been criticized for its contradictions and discontinuities. By surveying Berdyaev's thought through the eyes of the concept of freedom, this study concludes that there still is an inner consistency in his system and that the concept of freedom is the key to grasp that consistency.