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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 20 hours
    Level: Intermediate

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • ‘Freedom’ can mean many different things. Here we're concerned with political freedom. Isaiah Berlin distinguished between a concept of negative freedom and a concept of positive freedom. You will examine...
 

1 Introducing the concept of freedom

  • 1 Introducing the concept of freedom Resource
  • What are the limits of individual freedom in a civilised society? Should we tolerate unlimited freedom of speech, no matter how offensive the views expressed? Can the state ever be justified in interfering...
 

2 The word ‘freedom’

  • 2 The word ‘freedom’ Resource
  • The word ‘freedom’ can have powerful emotive force, that is, the power to arouse strong emotions. Its connotations are almost exclusively positive. If you describe a group as ‘freedom fighters’ this suggests...
 

3 Isaiah Berlin's ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ (1958)

  • 3.1 Preamble Resource
  • In a ground-breaking lecture, the philosopher and historian of ideas Isaiah Berlin (1909–97) argued that there are two basic types of freedom which have been defended by philosophers and political theorists:...
  • 3.2 Negative freedom Resource
  • The concept of negative freedom centres on freedom from interference. This type of account of freedom is usually put forward in response to the following sort of question:
  • 3.3 Positive freedom Resource
  • Positive freedom is a more difficult notion to grasp than negative. Put simply it is freedom to do something rather than freedom from interference. Negative freedom is simply a matter of the number and...
  • 3.4 The misuse of the concept of positive liberty Resource
  • One of the main claims that Berlin makes in ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ is a historical one. It is that positive theories of freedom, or perversions of them, have been more frequently used as instruments...
  • 3.5 The notion of a final solution Resource
  • Motivating much of Berlin's essay on the two concepts of liberty is a pair of related beliefs. First he believes that the notion of a so-called ‘final solution’, the belief that ultimately all human differences...
  • 3.6 Berlin criticised: one concept of freedom? Resource
  • I've already mentioned that the most important feature of Berlin's article for our purposes is his distinction between negative and positive concepts of freedom: freedom from constraint, and the freedom...
 

4 Conclusion

  • 4.1 Unit summary Resource
  • ‘Freedom’ can mean many different things; the word can have a powerful emotive force. We're concerned here with political freedom. Isaiah Berlin distinguished between a concept of negative freedom and...
  • 4.2 Further reading Resource
  • The complete text of Isaiah Berlin's essay ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ is contained in his Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford University Press, 1969). This book also contains an essay on John Stuart Mill's theory...
 

References and Acknowledgements

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