SŤAHEL, R.: Environmental Limits of Personal Freedom
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Philosophica Critica, vol. 2, 2016, no. 1, ISSN 1339-8970, pp. 3–21
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Abstract: The more the number of people who live on Earth grows, the more significant are the cuts individuals must accept in realization of their own freedom, so as not to limit the freedom of others. With the growing population on the finite planet the real space for freedom of each individual decreases. Moreover, the growth of complexity of the global industrial civilization increases the degree of interdependence on one hand, on the other the degree of mutual trust decreases as a result of the imperative of growth and profit, and without it no human society can function in the long term. Access to sources necessary for the realization of fundamental freedoms is unequal, and, in fact, it thus limits its accessibility for the majority of human population. Philosophical reflection then should cope with question, whether the range of guaranteed freedoms can be broadened or at least sustained when the space for its realization with the growing human population struggling for increasingly limited resources narrows.
Key words: Freedom – Imperatives of growth – Limits of growth – Natural resources
Key words: Freedom – Imperatives of growth – Limits of growth – Natural resources