Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional law of the United States, ordered liberty means creating a balanced society where individuals have the freedom to act without unnecessary interference (negative liberty) and access to opportunities and resources to pursue their goals (positive liberty), all within a fair legal system.
Sometimes liberty is differentiated from freedom by using the word “freedom” primarily, if not exclusively, to mean the ability to do as one wills and what one has the power to do; and using the word “liberty” to mean the absence of arbitrary restraints, taking into account the rights of all involved. In this sense, the exercise of liberty is subject to capability and limited by the rights of others. Thus liberty entails the responsible use of freedom under the rule of law without depriving anyone else of their freedom. Liberty can be taken away as a form of punishment. In many countries, people can be deprived of their liberty if they are convicted of criminal acts.
Liberty’s etymology is from the Latin word liber, from Proto-Italic *louðeros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁léwdʰeros, from *h₁lewdʰ- (‘people’) (thus cognate to archaic English lede meaning ‘man, person’). The word “liberty” is commonly used in slogans or quotes, such as in “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” from the United States Declaration of Independence, and France’s national motto “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”.
Negative liberty is freedom from external interference (freedom from), while positive liberty is the capacity and ability to act to fulfill one’s potential (freedom to). Negative liberty is a state of being unhindered by others, such as freedom from assault or government coercion, whereas positive liberty is about self-mastery and having the resources or opportunities to achieve one’s goals, like being able to afford a certain type of education.
| Negative Liberty | Positive Liberty | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The absence of obstacles, barriers, or constraints. | The presence of the capacity to act and take control of one’s life. |
| Focus | ”Freedom from”. | ”Freedom to”. |
| Example | The freedom from being censored or prevented from speaking your mind. | The freedom to access education or healthcare. |
| Implication | Everyone can have the same negative liberties, as they are about the absence of something. | Not everyone can have the same positive liberties, as resources are finite. |
| Political View | Often associated with classical liberalism, advocating for minimal state intervention. | Can be associated with social democracy or other political ideologies that support government intervention to create conditions for self-realization. |
“Positive liberty… is a valid universal goal. I do not know why I should have been held to doubt this, or, for that matter, the further proposition, that democratic self-government is a fundamental human need, something valuable in itself, whether or not it clashes with the claims of negative liberty or of any other goal…. What I am mainly concerned to establish is that, whatever may be the common ground between them, and whatever is liable to graver distortion, negative and positive liberty are not the same thing.”
Isaiah Berlin, Five Essays on Liberty: An Introduction(wikipedia/en/Two_Concepts_of_Liberty
)
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/
[2] https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2858&context=cklawreview
[3] https://www.quora.com/What-is-liberty-Distinguish-between-negative-and-positive-concepts-of-liberty
[4] https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/what-are-negative-positive-liberty-why-does-it-matter
[5] wikipedia/en/Positive_liberty
[6] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/liberty-positive-negative/
[7] https://www.quora.com/What-is-positive-liberty
[10] https://fiveable.me/key-terms/intro-to-poli-sci/negative-liberty
[11] https://www.coloniallife.com/employer-resource-center/voluntary-benefits
Not all images can be exported from Search.