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tradition , certainly did not intend the liberation of the individual in
the later sense - nevertheless, they sowed its seeds. Even less did the
assorted gangsters and con men of early capitalism intend to lay an
economic foundation for democracy - nevertheless they did so . Max
Weber understood this very well and expressed it in his concept of
the unintended consequences of human actions. This important con–
cept also must be applied in the drawing of our map. Nothing would
be more misleading than to study the history of freedom only
through the actions of those who set out to advocate or bring it
about. (Marx understood this too, despite his various other misun–
derstandings, and behind both Weber and Marx looms Hegel's pro–
foundly correct notion of the "cunning of history .")
• • •
Let us return once more to Don Quixote. We are touched by
his vulnerability. The solitary figure is so easily squashed. In Cer–
vantes's novel, the story ends with Quixote giving up his wild quest
for an impossible liberation . He returns to the bosom of the com–
munity , ever ready to receive errant knights, and says : "God pardon
you, my friends, for you have robbed me of the sweetest existence
and most delightful vision any human being ever enjoyed or beheld.
Now, indeed, I positively know that the pleasures of this life pass like
a shadow and a dream." Take Quixote as a metaphor offreedom and
these words as a poignant description of the chances of individual
autonomy in the world.
On every level we seek to understand this, we are struck by the
precariousness of individual autonomy-or, if you prefer, the vul–
nerability offreedom. Historically, it is so easy to see the contingen–
cies ("accidents") on which its emergence and survival hinged. Sup–
pose that the Persians had won at Marathon, that the Israelites had
perished in the wilderness. One of the silliest contemporary notions
is that "you cannot fight ideas with weapons." Of course you
can - and , over and over again in history, not only ideas but entire
worlds of human experience linked to these ideas were squashed by
brute violence . Where today is Albigensianism (not just a set of
ideas, but an entire, vibrant human culture)? And where might it be
if it had not been for the crusade against Languedoc? Even the
language has been stamped out! The same precariousness exists on
the level of philosophical analysis: as one analyzes one set of causal
determinants after another , where is the "space" for freedom? This
intrinsic difficulty was classically expressed in Kant's concept of the
