Positive Freedom, And Isaiah Berlin : Two Concepts Of Freedom

From the book “The Giver”, I have noticed an important message that the author wanted to tell us – The importance of freedom.

Although liberals agree about the value of liberty, their views on what it means to be ‘free’ vary significantly. It was Isaiah Berlin who first created the concepts of negative and positive freedom that helped to differentiate between the two liberals’ views of freedom. The concept of negative freedom was adopted by classical liberals, who believed that freedom was defined as being left alone and free from interference. Classical liberals believed this theory to mean that individuals should be free from external restrictions or constraints. Modern liberals, on the other hand, believed in positive freedom. This, modernist’s perceived to means that all individuals have the ability to be their own master, and thus reach full autonomy. Unlike classical liberals, who had little faith in humankind, Modernists conveyed humans in a much more positive light: people are rational beings that are capable, and therefore should be able, to flourish and

Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.

The staple of societal thought, freedom, is the power to act, speak, or think as one wants without the concern of being oppressed (Webster). Freedom, is a unique element to the mixture of liberty across the United States. Martin Luther King Jr’s a “letter of Birmingham Jail,” and Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence both advocate the claim for freedom. Both of these historical figures make this apparent by arguing for the protest against tradition, a change across unjust laws, although they differ between the kinds of change to be enforced.

“Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party — though they are quite numerous — is no freedom at all. Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters”.

Freedom is the ultimate goal—this intrinsic desire has been manifested within human civilization since the beginning of time. Although, humans crave the idea of complete freedom, they do not understand what complete freedom entails. I believe freedom is a social construct that is conceptualized. The definition of freedom almost always varies from person to person; my interpretation of freedom is being given the ability to act, reason and believe with the condition of minimal constraint. Moreover, the terms freedom and free-will must be differentiated between, they cannot be defined within the same realm. Free-will is a psychological capacity, directing ones behavior in a way responsive to reason, while freedom is constrained by rules that govern us through social order. Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor proclaims that it is not freedom that brings man happiness, but security. On the contrary, Socrates a famous Greek philosopher, places much emphasis on freedom that he accepts death over living a slave.

What comes to mind when you think of freedom? To most of us, we think about slavery that happened in America a couple centuries back, and how it took the African-Americans a long time to gain their freedom and equal rights. Has the Holocaust ever popped into mind when you think of freedom? Probably not. From 1933-1945, about six million Jews, along with a small amount of other ethnic groups, were killed in concentration camps. “Who would ever think of freedom when six million people were killed in such a short time span?” You may ask. Fortunately, after this tragic event, some people survived. A man named Elie Wiesel was one of those people. He has turned into a very successful person after the Holocaust, despite having to live through the horrors of watching bodies burn before him. Today, he is a nobel peace prize winner, a political activist, a professor, and the author of 47 books, one of the most popular called “Night.” All of these books reflect the feelings and thoughts he had during the Holocaust.

To state that true freedom can only be obtained once one has shed his or her confinements is to reiterate the obvious that one becomes free as soon as they get rid of whatever is constraining their freedom. Several interpretations can come of this single statement and depending on an individual’s state of mind or prevailing circumstances it is possible for a reader to have more than one interpretation or elucidation of this single statement. Speaking generally however, the most common and therefore the most vastly construed meaning of the statement is that liberty or sovereignty is attained at the point where the prisoner or captive is able to overcome that which is detaining him or curtailing his freedom. In other words for one to advance, they must eliminate anything that stands in their way of progress (Rocks, 1972).

Many ideas are important within the American culture, but to the American sense of patriotism, freedom is most fundamental. The idea of freedom is central to the American politics – which is at times referred to as liberty. Since the birth of the nation, freedom has been the vocabulary of the American language and its importance cannot be underestimated. The Declaration of Independence, for instance, ranks liberty as an inalienable right. On the other hand, the Constitution reckons that it purposes to protect civilians’ liberty. The importance of freedom has even stretched further than the political arena and has prompted the birth of civil rights movements and other activist protests. The Cold War and the Civil War were all for the cause of freedom. The importance that Americans attach to freedom can also be demonstrated from the erection of statues, banishment of slavery, use of liberty poles and a right to vote for adults. For many years, women and the African Americans have for a long time fought against denial and infringement of their freedom . However, given the importance that Americans affiliate to freedom in the conceptualization of their country, it has been the subject of modifications over the course of years especially before the Revolutionary War.

Secondly, when we ask the question, what is freedom, we are not simply asking for a definition. We are seeking to find some truth in regards to liberty. We don’t ask this difficult question in order to get some sort of dictionary definition, we ask this question in order to gain insight. We ask this question to know how we should live our lives and how our government and other institutions should act in respect to liberty and our freedoms. Berlin’s two conceptions not only provide us with a definition, but also helps us determine how our society and laws should progress.

Just as every plants and animal as evolved and changed throughout the course of its existence so has the definition of freedom while its’ meaning has stayed constant. Freedom has a perpetual meaning, however, humans have tried to change the definition based upon moral, ethical, social, and legal ideals that have through history been debated upon and never satisfied all. Freedoms’ perpetual meaning is that everyone, no matter race or gender, has the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. As time progresses and new ideas flourish the definition of freedom either flourishes along with society or takes a drastic spiral downward usually with the opinions of humanity. In this essay we will be

There are many different critics of liberalism that we have studied throughout the second half of the semester which include philosophers such as Marx, Burke, and Goldman. These philosophers have allowed readers to open up their minds to different ideas that are not common in today’s world. In our contemporary modern society, most people tend to prefer this idea of liberalism, this is the notion that people are entitled to freedom and equality no matter where your geographical location may be. The philosophers that we have studied in this second half of the course have challenged this type of thinking bringing new ideas to the table that surround the concepts of freedom, equality, and power.

Wars, death, and other acts of violence have all been part of a process to attain true freedom. However, what is true freedom? John Stuart Mill and Georg Hegel tackle this notion of freedom. Mills states that freedom is when individuals have unlimited liberty, while Hegel says that is a false freedom. He states that freedom is when the individual’s morals align with external laws within the nation state. Despite what many say freedom is more similar in Hegel’s and Mills than different. We can see this through Hegel’s notion of absolute mind and Mill’s value of liberty and notion of diversity.

of us fail to cherish and value our granted freedom. Many of us do not

Negative and positive liberty are best understood as distinct values within Berlin’s own scheme of value pluralism. While an increase in either is desirable, ceteris paribus, attempting to maximize any single idea of liberty without regard to any other values necessarily entails absurd and clearly undesirable conclusions; any sensible idea of jointly maximizing freedom in general, therefore, must acknowledge the tradeoffs inherent in increasing one aspect of freedom or another. The tension here is akin to the familiar tradeoff between equity and efficiency concerns in economics; negative and positive freedom are not diametrically opposed, but the two ideals may not be individually maximized at the same time.