Liberty

• Meaning and definitions of Liberty

• Negative & Positive Liberty
Introduction to Liberty
• Origin- Latin word ‘liber’, meaning- Freedom
• Liberty means- freedom from restraints

• Meaning-
• Liberty refers to (by Gerald MacCallum)-
- Freedom of an individual
- From an obstacle
- To do something.
Two senses of Liberty-
• Liberty as a quality of human being-
- only human have this quality
- only humans have the capability of freedom. Other species follow the rules
of survival of fittest.
- It also means the capacity of humans to learn and apply the rules and laws
for the benefit of human kind.
• Liberty as a condition of human being
- Means absent of constraints.
- Constraints may be internal or external. Liberty means when a human
being applies his rational and know that what is best for him.
Definitions & quotes
• Seeley- Liberty is the opposite of the government.
• G D H Cole- Liberty is freedom of individuals to express his personality
without external hinderance.
• Rousseau- Liberty consist in obedience to general will.
• Laski- Liberty is the eager maintenance of that atmosphere in which
men have the opportunity to be their best-selves.
• Green- Liberty is the positive power of doing and enjoying those
things which are worth doing and enjoying.
• Berlin- Being free means not being interfered with by others. The
wider the area of non-interference, the wider the freedom.
• Thomas Paine- The government itself can become/pose a threat to
liberty. The issue is to devise a system that gives govt the power
necessary to protect individual liberty but also prevents those who
govern from abusing that power.
• J S Mill- If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one
person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power,
would be justified in silencing mankind.
Positive & Negative Liberty
• Isaiah Berlin- Distinction between negative liberty and positive liberty.
• Book- “Two concepts of liberty”
Negative liberty
• Introduction-
- Reflects the phase of liberalism in the 17th and 18th century.
- Demand of negative liberty came into wake in Europe with the rise of
a new merchant-industrialist class.
- Liberty as freedom of trade, freedom of enterprise, a free
competition of the market forces of supply and demand.
Meaning
- In the negative sense, one is considered free to the extent to which
no person interferes with his or her activity
- Means freedom of doing anything without restrictions.
- An individual’s liberty from being subjected to the authority of others.
- Supporters- J S Mill, Hobbes, Locke, Tocqueville, Jefferson, Burke,
Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Isaiah berlin, Friedman, Nozick, Hayek.
- Ex.- Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship.
- Negative role of the state, that is not to restrict the individuals in
pursuing his self-appointed goals.
- State is necessary evil.
- Watch dog state.
- Laissez-faire- freedom from government interference in economic
affairs.
Positive Liberty
• Introduction
- Came into wake in middle 19th century.
- Negative liberty- Capitalist system- Disparities of wealth & power- bad
conditions of labour and working class.
- Positive liberty- sought to extend benefits of liberty to the working
class.
- J S Mill- introduced the concept of Positive liberty.
Meaning
- Opportunity and ability to act and fulfil one’s own potential.
- To develop capabilities, individual must have enabling positive
conditions.
- Freedom to achieve certain ends.
- Ex. Freedom of want, freedom from fear.
- Positive role of the state, that is to remove certain impediments in the
way of the individuals in exercising his freedom.
- Supports- Welfare state.
- Supporters- Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Green, Bosanquet, Laski, L T
Hobhouse.
• These two types of liberty are not opposed to each other. In fact they
are complementary- Two sides of the same coin.
• Now, positive liberty is regarded as essential complement of negative
liberty.
Contemporary debate on Liberty
- Emphasis on negative liberty.
- Supports free market economy.
- Reject welfare state.
- Favours Libertarianism-
• Advocates individual freedom as natural law, as a fundamental value
of political system and economic exchange.
• Supporters- Robert Nozick, Isaiah berlin, Milton Friedman.
Mill on Liberty
• Book- ‘On Liberty’
• Free discourse is a necessary condition for intellectual and social
progress.
• Initially negative liberty, later realizing its weakness (exploitation of
labours in industrial era), he proceeded to modify it and favoured
Positive liberty.
• Harm principle-
- Each individual has the right to act as he wants, so long as those
actions do not harm others.
- If the action is self regarding, that is, if directly affects only the person
undertaking the action, then society has no right to intervene, even if
it feels the actor is harming himself.
• Self regarding actions vs other regarding actions-
- Self regarding action- Whose affect was confined to the individual
himself- complete freedom.
- Other regarding action- which affect others- state should restrict him.
Isaiah Berlin on Liberty
• Book- Two Concepts of Liberty (1958)
• Gave a new distinction between negative and positive liberty.
• Supporter of negative liberty.
• Negative liberty of individual consist in not being prevented from
attaining his goal by other human beings.
• Role of state in liberty by ensuring that individual is not prevented
from choosing his course of action.
• Positive liberty is individual’s own will and capacity which is beyond
the state.
• Positive liberty- Individual is his own master.
• In both the cases liberty is absence of restraints.
Hayek on liberty
• Book- Constitution of Liberty (1960)
• A man possess liberty or freedom when he is not subjected to
coercion by the arbitrary will of another.
• Individual freedom vs other meaning of freedom- he contrast
individual freedom from these 3 freedoms.
- Political freedom
- Inner freedom
- Freedom of power
- Political freedom- freedom of participation of men in choice of govt,
in the process of legislation and in the control of administration.
- Inner freedom- means extent to which a person is guided in his
actions by his own considered will rather then by momentary impulse
or influence of passing emotions.
- Freedom of power- signifies power to satisfy our wishes or the choice
of alternative opens to us.
Friedman on Liberty
• Book- Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
• Freedom- ‘absence of coercion of man by his fellow men’.
• Competitive market economy necessary to freedom.
• Govt- only those matters which can not be handled by the market.
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