What Freedom?: Pushkin’s “From Pindemonte”

Abstract

The aim of this work is to shed light on the ideal of “another freedom” expressed by Pushkin in the poem “From Pindemonte” in the context of modern concepts of freedom. It specifically intends to argue against the view of A. Etkind, who understands “another freedom” as equivalent to Isaiah Berlin's “negative freedom.” Whether Etkind's view is valid is examined in the context of the debate over Berlin's theory of freedom in modern political philosophy. Pushkin, who belongs to liberals, shares with Berlin the position of anti-rationalism and anti-utopianism. Modern republican critique of Berlin's liberal view of freedom can also be applied to Pushkin's political ideal of “enlightened despotism” in his later years. As such, there are several valid reasons to regard Pushkin's “another freedom” as the same paradigm as Berlin's “negative freedom.” However, Pushkin's position is different from Berlin's value pluralism. Pushkin's “another freedom” is not limited to “negative freedom.” In Pushkin's poem, both ‘autonomy’ and ‘authenticity’ of “positive freedom” are embodied. In a strict sense, Pushkin's “another freedom” differs from Western liberals' understanding of freedom. “Another freedom” that Pushkin wants is ‘anarchist individualism’ in its essence. The fundamentally different attributes of Pushkin's “another freedom” and Berlin's “negative freedom” in pursuit of the universal ideal of freedom of private life raise the issue of cultural differences in understanding the concept of freedom, which will be discussed in another study.