LIberty

Question 1

Why is it important to have political theory?

Answer 1

Because, at no point in history, have so many been affected by fanatical commitments to social and political doctrines

Question 2

Why is there a danger if trained scholars do not attend ideas?
(Quote)

Answer 2

‘They often acquire an unchecked momentum and an irresistible power over multitudes of men that may grow too violent to be affected by rational criticism’
Berlin, 1958

Question 3

What does Berlin mean by ‘negative liberty’?

Answer 3

‘By being free in this sense I mean not being interfered with by others. The wider the area of non-interference, the wider my freedom’
(Quote)

Question 4

What, for Hobbes, does freedom mean?
(Quote)

Answer 4

‘[A] Free-man is he that is able to do [and] is not hindered to do what he has a will to’

Question 5

What, to Hobbes, are you free from if you are a ‘Free-man [from] those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do [and] is not hindered to do what he has a will to’

Answer 5

You are free from ‘external impediments’ to motion

Question 6

What, to Locke, is Freedom?
(Quote)

Answer 6

‘[liberty] is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule.’
Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government, 1690

Question 7

What does Locke mean when he states that freedom is:
‘The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule.’
(Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government, 1690)

Answer 7

To be free from both the external impediments of motion and external impediments of the will.

Question 8

What does Mill mean when he says that ‘The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way.’

Answer 8

That we have freedom from external and internal impediments to motion and wil

Question 9

What, to Mill, is liberty?

Answer 9

‘Freedom [is] pursuing our own good in our own way.’
Mill, On Liberty, 1859

Question 10

What are Berlin’s three observations concerning Mill?

Answer 10

*Confuses two concepts of liberty: ‘classical’ negative conception, and that self-fulfillment develops a progressive character
*Modern
*Notion that liberty is not incompatible with certain kinds of autocracy

Question 11

What is a quote from Berlin concerning a notion that liberty is not incompatible with certain kinds of autocracy

Answer 11

There is a difference between ‘freedom from’ and ‘freedom to’ that has ‘led in the end to the great clash of ideologies that dominates our world. for it is this, the ‘positive’ conception of liberty […] which the adherents of the ‘negative’ notion represent as being, at times, not better than a specious disguise for brutal tyranny.’

Question 12

What does Mill mean when he says that ‘The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way.’

Answer 12

That we have freedom from external and internal impediments to motion and will

Question 13

What does Berlin mean by ‘positive liberty’?

Answer 13

That one is free insofar as one acts in accordance with one’s true desires or interests, or in such a way that helps me to realise my human nature

Question 14

Finish this long quote about Berlin’s critique of positive liberty:
‘This [positive liberty] renders it easy fro me to conceive of myself as…’

Answer 14

… coercing others for their own sake, in their, not my interest. I am then claiming that i know what they truly need better than they know it themselves. What, at most, this entails is that they would not resist me if they were rational, and as wise as I, and understood their interests as I do.’

Question 15

When does tension between the negative and positive conception of freedom arise?

Answer 15

When individual is regarded as mistaken about their own rational interests – regarded as engaging in actions contrary to their ‘true’ selves’ – autonomy understood as mastery of lesser aspects of self

Question 16

What is the conception of an individual being regarded as mistaken about their own rational interests – regarded as engaging in actions contrary to their ‘true’ selves’ – autonomy understood as mastery of lesser aspects of self called in Marxist tradition

Answer 16

False consciousness

Question 17

Define false consciousness in Marx’s words
(Quote)

Answer 17

‘To the degree to which they correspond to the given reality, thought and behaviour express a false consciousness, responding to and contributing to the preservation of a false order of facts’

Question 18

What can be seen within positive freedom?

Answer 18

Asceticism

Question 19

What is a quote that can define asceticism in positive freedom?

Answer 19

The ‘retreat to the inner citadel’

Question 20

What does Berlin mean by the ‘retreat to the inner citadel’

Answer 20

That political isolationism, economic autarky, and all autonomy, has in it some element of eliminating obstacles in my path by abandoning the path

Question 21

What is this level of asceticism similar to?

Answer 21

Kant’s notion of freedom as willed self-compulsion to overcome irrational passions and obey the law

Question 22

What is another way of looking at the positive doctrine of liberty?

Answer 22

By reason

Question 23

Who are some proponents that support the positive doctrine of liberation by reason?

Answer 23

Hegel, Herder, and Marx

Question 24

What does Berlin align positive liberty with?

Answer 24

Self-control or self-direction, rather than negative liberty – a field without obstacles

Question 25

What is the enlightenment ideal of freedom as rational self-direction associated with?

Answer 25

A belief that will to domination (an irrational will) would die away with the creation of a rational society

Question 26

What does the enlightenment ideal of freedom as rational self-direction assume? Why is this an issue?

Answer 26

It assumes that rational people would share the same conception of a desired end

Question 27

What, essentially, is this enlightenment push?

Answer 27

An enlightenment push of rational self-determination predicated upon reason

Question 28

What does Berlin think about an enlightenment push of rational self-determination predicated upon reason

Answer 28

That it vulnerable to irrationalism

Question 29

Finish the quote:
‘This is the argument used by every dictator […] who…

Answer 29

… seeks some moral, or even aesthetic, justification for his conduct. I must do for men (or with them) what they cannot do for themselves [without their consent]’.

Question 30

In Kant’s argument for rational laws, what else did he say?

Answer 30

that it could not derive someone of rational freedom

Question 31

With Kant’s claim that rational laws could not deprive someone of rational freedom, what happened?

Answer 31

‘With this the door was opened wide to the rule of experts, which leads to despotism, albeit by the best and wisest.’

Question 32

In this despotism with freedom, what 3 things could be wrong?

Answer 32

1. The premise the that all humans have on true purpose;
2. All rational beings fit into one universal patter, wherein some see more clearly than others
3. All conflict derives from rational against irrational

Question 33

What is the ambiguity in the concept of liberty?

Answer 33

That fights for freedom have generally been fights for the right to self-determination, not fights for liberty

Question 34

What then, is the fundamental conflict between negative and positive liberty?

Answer 34

That advocates of negative liberty ‘want to curb authority as such’, whilst advocates of positive liberty ‘want it placed in their own hands’

Question 35

What does Berlin say about the fundamental conflict between advocates of negative liberty ‘want[ing] to curb authority as such’, whilst advocates of positive liberty ‘want[ing] it placed in their own hands’

Answer 35

That ‘each of them makes absolute claims. These claims cannot be both fully satisfied.’

Question 36

What, to Berlin, is ‘responsible for the sluaghter of individuals on the altars of the great historical beliefs’?

Answer 36

That there is a ‘final solution’

Question 37

What does this ‘final solution’ rely upon?

Answer 37

That, in the end, all positive values must be compatible, and perhaps entail one another

Question 38

What is the problem of the conclusion that all positive values must be compatible and entail one another?

Answer 38

That there is no empirical evidence.

Question 39

What does Berlin believe follows from incompatibility of human ends?

Answer 39

That if the ends of men are many, and not all of them are in principle compatible, then the possibility of conflict – and of tragedy – can never wholly be eliminated from human life

Question 40

Which, positive or negative liberty, does Berlin take to be more compatible with pluralism?

Answer 40

Negative liberty

Question 41

Why does Berlin prefer negative liberty?

Answer 41

Because it ‘does, at least, recognise the fact that human goals are many, not all of them commensurable, and in perpetual rivalry with one another.’

Question 42

What does Berlin hold pluralism to be?

Answer 42

That there is a ‘plurality of values which men can and do seek, and that these values differ.’

Question 43

What is Charles Taylor’s reply to Berlin?

Answer 43

That criticisms of positive liberty ‘refuse to recognise the freedoms guaranteed in other societies as genuine’.