On Martin Hägglund's This Life.

We continue on the theme of freedom. In this episode, we look at what Martin Hägglund describes as 'spiritual freedom', which can ultimately be seen as a question of what we do with our time. Across the two chapters in question, Hägglund ties together his philosophical vision rooted in the notion of mortality and temporal life, with a social critique that draws on Hegel and Marx. He does this by centring the question of time, the only truly scarce resource.

How can we negotiate anxiety-inducing freedom today? Where do our 'existential identities' come from, and does Hägglund put too much emphasis on identity? And is Buddhist karma a system analogous to the market?

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Readings & resources:

• This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free, Martin Hägglund, Profile Books ––Chapter 4 and 5
• On time, work, freedom and necessity: /298/ Working For Freedom ft. Alex Gourevitch
• On Hegel and contradiction: /167/ The Kingdom of God Is on Main Street ft. Todd McGowan
• On Sartre: Being and Nothingness (1943) and his subsequent 1946 essay summarising ideas in the book, "Existentialism Is a Humanism"