Philosophy Dictionary of Arguments

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Freedom: Freedom is the ability to live one's life without constraints, according to one's own values and beliefs. See also Liberty, Community, State, Governance, Society, Individuals, Democracy.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Philippe Van Parijs on Freedom - Dictionary of Arguments

Gaus I 126
Freedom/negative freedom/Van Parijs/Gaus/Mack: The liberty tradition's devotion to individual freedom is, of course, a devotion to some version of negative freedom (Berlin, 1969)(1). Now egalitarians have long criticized the liberty tradition for denying that freedom requires resources. Liberty, it has long been argued, is not simply about the absence of interferences with one's actions, but the ability to perform the actions a person desires. In short, a free person can do what she desires to do.
Liberty/Tawney: As the British socialist R. H. Tawney put it, liberty implies 'the ability to act' (1931(2): 221).
Van Parijs: Phillipe Van Parijs has recently advanced a far more sophisticated version of this so-called left-wing critique of negative liberty (for discussions, see Reeve and Williams, 2003)(3). For Real freedom/Van Parijs: 'real freedom' involves three components: 'security, self-ownership and opportunity - in contrast to formal freedom, which only incorporates the first two' (1995(4): 22-3). A real libertarian society, Van Parijs argues, meets three conditions:
1. There is some well-enforced structure of rights (security).
2. This structure is such that each person owns herself (self-ownership).
3. This structure is such that each person has the greatest possible opportunity to do whatever
she might want to do (leximin opportunity) (1995(4):25).
>Social minimum/Van Parijs.

1. Berlin, Isaiah (1969) 'Two concepts of liberty'. In his Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Tawney, R. H. (1931) Equality. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
3. Reeve, Andrew and Andrew Williams, eds (2003) Real Libertarianism Assessed: Political Theory after Van Parijs. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
4. Van Parijs, Phillipe (1995) Real Freedom for All: What (If Anything) Can Justify Capitalism? Oxford: Clarendon.

Mack, Eric and Gaus, Gerald F. 2004. „Classical Liberalism and Libertarianism: The Liberty Tradition.“ In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications.


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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
Van Parijs, Philippe
Gaus I
Gerald F. Gaus
Chandran Kukathas
Handbook of Political Theory London 2004


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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-29
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