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📑 Fact Sheet: Liberty
🔹 Key Definitions
“A free man, is he, that in those things, which by his strength and wit he is able to, is not hindered to do what he has a will to.” – Hobbes
“Freedom is a state in which man is not subject to coercion by arbitrary will of others.” – F.A. Hayek
“Man is free to act without subject to arbitrary will of another within allowance of moral law.” – John Locke
“Freedom is the ability to govern one’s actions on the basis of reason, not desire.” – Kant
“The fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, imprisonment, enslavement by others.” – Isaiah Berlin
“Freedom is obeying laws reflecting general will of the political community.” – Rousseau
“It is a positive power of doing or enjoying something worth doing or enjoying – Moral Freedom.” – T.H. Green
🔹 Negative vs Positive Liberty (Isaiah Berlin)
- Negative Liberty: Absence of external interference, man-made constraints on one’s thoughts/actions. (Minimal state)
- Positive Liberty: Self-mastery, self-direction, self-realization, enabling people to live better lives. (Welfare state)
Berlin supported Negative Liberty, warning that Positive Liberty may become a “slippery slope” towards totalitarianism.
🔹 Other Concepts
- Benjamin Constant: Ancient Liberty (participation in governance) vs Modern Liberty (individual freedom).
- Phillip Pettit & Quinton Skinner: Republican liberty = absence of domination.
- Gerald McCallum: Triadic conception → Liberty as relation between Agent (X), Constraint (Y), Purpose (Z).
- J.S. Mill: Harm Principle – freedom to act until it harms others. Individual sovereignty.
- Charles Taylor: Negative = Opportunity concept; Positive = Exercise concept.
- Amartya Sen: Development as Freedom → freedom as both means & end. Five Freedoms:
- Political freedoms & civil liberties
- Economic opportunities
- Social opportunities (health, education, equality)
- Transparency guarantees
- Protective security (safety nets)
🔹 Thinkers on Liberty
Negative Liberty: Hobbes, Locke, Berlin, Rawls, Nozick, Hayek, Friedman
Positive Liberty: Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, T.H. Green, Laski, Bosanquet
Both (Mixed): J.S. Mill, Rawls
🔹 Important UGC-NET Pointers
- Isaiah Berlin: Two concepts of liberty; supported Negative.
- Benjamin Constant: Ancient vs Modern liberty.
- Phillip Pettit: Republican liberty = absence of domination.
- Gerald McCallum: Triadic relation of liberty.
- J.S. Mill: Harm principle; “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
- Montesquieu: Separation of powers → safeguard of liberty.
- John Seeley: “Liberty is opposite of over-government.”
- Rousseau: “I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.”
🔹 Liberty in Indian Constitution
- Article 21: Right to Life & Personal Liberty
- Article 19: 6 Fundamental Freedoms
- Article 25-28: Freedom of Religion & Conscience
- Safeguards: Rule of law, separation of powers, independent judiciary, democracy