What is meant
For Shahrur, freedom is an original value in the human being, and it is what constitutes his humanity. This freedom appears in speech and action and in the rejection of tyranny, not as a marginal jurisprudential matter.
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: value-based
- Argument movement: makes freedom a foundation of humanity, not a jurisprudential margin.
- Central terms: freedom, humanity, tyranny, action.
- Degree of centrality: foundational.
This atom gives freedom a constitutive place in defining the human being, and links dignity to action and choice, making resistance to tyranny part of the very meaning of humanity.
Links that help reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Religion and Authority
- Freedom, the Human Being, and Responsibility
- Freedom
- Freedom as Act and Conduct
Basis
- Supporting text: «Freedom is an original value in the human being, and it is the basis of humanity, not a marginal jurisprudential matter».
Place of the basis in the book
- Book: Religion and Authority.
- Location: in the middle section of the book within the definition of freedom.
- Type of basis: proximate witness.
- Verification cue: freedom is a human value
- Reading note: This location is suitable as evidence because it makes freedom a human value among the highest values, not a marginal issue.
Degree of documentation
- Level: synthetically documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on more than one witness or on a clear synthesis of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: the witnesses explicitly mention freedom as the basis of humanity.
- Limits of reading: the wording above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial note
A foundational atom because it establishes a central value in the overall vision.