This is a worksheet for a short introduction to the principle ideas of the research thesis Principles of Liberty.

1. This is a worksheet for a short introduction to the principle ideas of the
research thesis Principles of Liberty.
PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY
WORKSHEETS INTRODUCTION:
Doctoral Candidate: Tabea Hirzel
Program: Doctorate of Diplomacy/ Political Economy
University: SMC University, Zug, Switzerland
Date: 12.30.2011

2. Argumentative map
matter (body)nous (mind)
liberty
plurality
universal problem
universal principle
narrativity meaning
noetic tension
social constituencyhistory
universal goal
personhood
Dramaturgy Philosophy Politics
THEORY
METHODOLOGY
EMPIRICS

3. matter (body)nous (mind)
liberty
plurality
universal problem
universal principle
narrativity meaning
noetic tension
social
constituency
history
universal goal
personhood
Dramaturgy Philosophy Politics
THEORY
METHODOLOGY
EMPIRICS
1
2 3
self-ownership4
5
6
78
9

4. Selfownership (personhood)
1. Historicity/narrativity: a univeral prinicple in self-owners (persons)
– Meaning in historical narrative based on universal rational rules
– Framing time: historical (chronological), cyclical and eternal time!
2. Noetic tension: a universal problem in self-owners (persons)
1. Requires the recognition of an internal conceptual contradiction, i.e.
performative contradiction (awareness)
1. I am unique as a person – but I am a persons like you = we are
persons
2. I am eternal – but I will die
3. The absolute has no meaning, existence has no duration
3. Meaning: a universal solution to overcome the noetic tension by self-
owners (persons)
1. Proposition of a constitutive creation
2. If accepted leads to social constituency

5. 1. Historicity/narrativity
Sample Story of the self Story of the Swiss
Heinrich Weiss He who measures the approriate
moment by unity and judgement (Kairos)
Unity makes strong, the
Commonwealth must be enforced
(coercion in the other’s interest).
Katharina Morel She who achieved much… even vinced
death… (The voyage of Libertas)
A good deal can vince death
(material exchange for spiritual
sovereignty).
Meta Heusser-Schweizer She, the hidden women, writing into the
hidden book… (The Book of Seven Seals)
Opponents are won for one’s cause
through patience and love.
Constantin Siegwart-Müller The persecutor of Crist who found
redemption… (Saint Paul)
The people’s will based on God’s
voice makes the state strong and
peaceful.
Bernhard Hirzel He who sacrificed himself to redeme the
original sin… (Jesus the Christ)
Material imperfection overcome by
voluntarily sacrificing one’s
material life to others.
Emma Herwegh She who devotes her life to the true
leader… (Oikist cult, civitas vs. Oikos:
Brasidas)
Switzerland the only free
(republican) earth (promissed land)

6. 2. Noetic Tension
Sample Story of the self Story of the Swiss
Heinrich Weiss I achieved autonomy through
education – Imposing a
(Christian) ideology was
coercion of my mind
To split people and
government in order to
unite the liberal party.
Katharina Morel I believe that I have achieved
much, yet I cannot by quiet.
Switzerland a good place,
but not yet complete.
Meta Heusser-
Schweizer
I am homesick for eternity – yet
engaged in uniting opposites
already on earth
A story of battles reflected
the (Swiss) community of
the saints
Constantin Siegwart-
Müller
I want to reform the church –
and believe in the institution of
the church
Returning to Switzerland –
waiting for its true destiny
after one’s life.
Bernhard Hirzel I do not want to live any longer
– this is my rational decision
Material imperfection
overcome by voluntarily
sacrificing his material life
to others.
Emma Herwegh I fight to free the children of
Germany – the Swiss have freed
themeselves
Switzerland a free republic
– but yet a local and clan-
based society

7. 3. Meaning
Sample Story of the self Story of the Swiss
Heinrich Weiss The wise moderate leader. United through rational,
strong leadership.
Katharina Morel The innovative enterpreneur. Progress through
education and work.
Meta Heusser-
Schweizer
The hidden mother. Unite people through
loving encounter in the
background.
Constantin Siegwart-
Müller
The defender of the faithful. Switzerland is a Christian
nation.
Bernhard Hirzel The misunderstood poet. Switzerland a nation in
decay/threatened.
Emma Herwegh The lover of the hero, the
heroin of love.
Switzerland a model for
success.

8. (1) Discourse ethics
• Liberty: the first principle; category of becoming (oriented towards
future).
• Plurality: a logical result of the materialization of liberty (=existence)
• Personhood: a phenomenon of discourse, a reply to the entity’s potential
of mind
• Universal problem: the persons strive for unity and orientation to future
 future demanding change, universal generating plurality and otherness
• Noetic tension: phenomenon of a double, mutually exclusive affirmation
(syllogism &Catuṣkoṭi ): certainty (self) ∨ reality (other); totality (ideal) ∨
actuality (world)  certainty ∨ totality; reality ∨ actuality.

9. Theoretical conception of Catuṣkoṭi
A) General (universal)affirmative (All S are P)
E) General (universal) negative (No S is P)
I) Particular affirmative (Some S are P)
O) Particular negative (Some S are not P)
R) Singular affirmative (This S is P)
G) Singular negative (This S is not P)
(A, E, I, O: plurals; O, R: singular)
Avi Sion (2013)
http://www.thelogician.net/7_fortiori/7_appendix_7.htm
#_ftnref6
PC
A person is … … A PERFORMATIVE CONTRADICTION
certain  the most certain truth is one’s own existence
but also
real  other’s might doubt that I existe
and is
total  I am eternal and I am finite
but also
actual  my body and my mind are both one

10. Theory of social constituency
Noetic tension.
implies an epistemological gap: substantive truth is incomplete
implies an ontological gap: substantive existence is incomplete
Personhood includes an encounter.
= a conflict a dis-course of action (liberty, totality, potentiality)
The will to live as a person is a performative contradiction.
= the acting of a (limited) body as if I were (unlimited) mind.
Performative contradiction in logic.
solved by rejection of one of the assertions (decisive encounter)
Performative contradiction in ethics:
overcome by negotiation of meaning (constitutive encounter)
The covenant.
The promis of liberty makes free to be meaningful.
 encounter leads to meaning

11. (2) Liberal Anarchism
• Material existence: universal origin and goal of persons, despite plurality
• Universal goal: re-establishment of unity and need of a “vision of the
future” or “will to live”
• Meaning: experience of synchronicity; common need of otherness,
universal “will to live” in persons
• Social constituency: negotiation of overlapping meaning-context (laws)

12. Methodology of social constituency
Multimodular: interdependence between (a) text/act/artefact and mind, (b) mind
and person, (c) person and society.
Engaged: encounter is an actual and personal phenomenon (cannot be
universalized, reduced or delegated).
Design-based research: the answer lies neither in the empirical data (deduction),
nor in the hermeneutic result (induction) but in the process (performance) of an
encounter.

13. (3) Narrativity of the Social World
• Spiritual being: universality of mind in persons, universal structure of
action
• Universal principle: liberty & meaning  universal narrative structure of
mind
• Narrativity: discursive, negotiation between author and audience of a
unique meaning
• History: the creation of a shared vision of the future based on empirical
data (past)

14. The Swiss Confederation or Covenant (Bund)
Storytelling is constitutive encounter
Ethical being is didactic, supporting the will to life universally; in
the self and in the other.
The transcendental covenant is a story which promises liberty
universally; to the self and to the other.
soteriological: promises a «salvation» from the tragic triad
(suffering, death, guilt)
eschatological (aprioristic): enables the end of ordinary reality and
reunion with the Divine/universal (vs. historical end-time!)
transcendental: the story form reveals the hidden through its
gaps; the universal comes into existence by its limitation, the self
through the other.