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Positive Liberty

An Essay in Normative Political Philosophy

  • Book
  • © 1980

Overview

Authors:
  1. Lawrence Crocker
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Part of the book series: Melbourne International Philosophy Series (MIPS, volume 7)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 1-9

  3. The Freedom to do a Particular Thing: The Objective Side

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 10-29

  4. The Freedom to do a Particular Thing: The Subjective Side

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 30-47

  5. Personal Freedom

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 48-65

  6. Social Liberty

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 66-81

  7. Criticisms of Positive Liberty

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 82-109

  8. The Value of Liberty

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 110-122

  9. The Costs and Limits of Liberty

    • Lawrence Crocker
    Pages 123-142
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Keywords

About this book

Liberty is perhaps the most praised of all social ideals. Rare is the modern political movement which has not inscribed "liberty," "freedom," "liber­ ation," or "emancipation" prominently on its banners. Rarer still is the political leader who has spoken out against liberty, though, of course, some have condemned "license. " While there is overwhelming agreement on the value of liberty, however, there is a great deal of disagreement on what liberty is. It is this fact that explains how it is possible for the most violently opposed of political parties to pay homage to the "same" ideal. From among the many ways liberty is understood, this essay will be concerned with only two. The first takes liberty to be the absence of human interference with the individual's actions. This is the way liberty has been understood by the Anglo-American "liberal" tradition from Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century to l. S. Mill in the nineteenth to such contemporary, and very dissimilar, political philosophers as John Rawls and Robert Nozick. The "absence of interference" school is far from monolithic in its understanding of liberty, but it is united in its opposition to a rival account on which liberty is not taken to be the absence of human interference but rather the presence of diverse pos­ sibilities or opportunities.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Positive Liberty

  • Book Subtitle: An Essay in Normative Political Philosophy

  • Authors: Lawrence Crocker

  • Series Title: Melbourne International Philosophy Series

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8837-8

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers by, The Hague 1980

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-247-2291-4Published: 30 June 1980

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-009-8839-2Published: 12 October 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-8837-8Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 147

  • Topics: Modern Philosophy, Ethics

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