The category of “political freedom” in postmodern discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to identifying the specific features of the philosophical category of “political freedom” in postmodern discourse. Through a detailed analysis of the works of J. Derrida, M. Foucault, J.-F. Lyotard, and other political philosophers and social theorists, the study traces the transition from defining freedom as emancipation to conceptualizing it as a problematic construct shaped by multiple dynamic factors, namely power relations and discursive practices. The study aims to identify the major conceptual shifts in the understanding of political freedom as a constituent of political being in postmodernity and to assess their theoretical and practical implications. The scientific novelty lies in systematizing the intrinsic paradoxes of political freedom generated by the postmodern critique of metanarratives through the analysis of “political freedom” as a philosophical category. As a result, the author establishes that the category of political freedom in postmodern discourse has lost its status as a supreme value and has instead become an arena for contestation and competing interpretations; thus, the very possibility of political freedom is subjected to continuous reinterpretation.