Freedom, Spontaneity, and Our Encounters

Abstract

This article defends the significance of our encounters on the grounds of their distinctive contribution to our freedom. The variety and novelty of our encounters, and the spontaneity they allow us in the shaping of our selves, creates opportunities for us to revise our conceptions of the good, to try out new narratives of our lives, and different ways of presenting ourselves. Even when we don’t take up these opportunities, still our encounters provide us with a sense of the openness and possibility of a human life. This role of encounters in a free human life challenges the overemphasis when conceptualising liberal freedom on the unimpeded pursuit of our plans or conceptions of the good: freedom is also about having a life that lies open before us. This defence also makes central not the fleeting contact between strangers on city streets and parks which has hitherto been the focus of political philosophers but, rather, our casual connections and weak ties with others, and in places beyond the city and its public spaces.