Humanological Motives for “Philosophy of Human Safety and Security Versus Ontological Constructivism”

Abstract

The paper starts from the “new poverty of philosophy” and the dominance of ontological (critical) constructivism in security studies, which reduces thinking to mere construction and erases the difference between philosophy and ideology. In contrast, the author develops a humanologically motivated philosophy of security as an attempt to restore the security of thought and regain an authentic understanding of freedom of thought beyond a purely negative concept of freedom. Through a hermeneutical reading of Hobbes’s model of the state of nature and legitimation, the thesis is derived that security is a fundamental, existential interest of the human being, from which both the social state and the concept of a security entity arise. On that basis an entological theory of security is formulated, in which identity, integrity, and sovereignty are the key criteria for the fulfillment of the security interest and the basis for the development of security culture and strategic security culture. In a broader context, the humanological approach allows linking the philosophy of human security with democracy as a communicative community that avoids both the universalist totalitarianism of ideologies and the technocratic governance of people. The philosophy of security thus proves to be an applied philosophy that establishes a feedback loop between theoretical and practical knowledge and offers an integral model for the study of contemporary security phenomena.