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LIBERTY
Prepared by Dr. Hena Singh and Dr. Chandrachur Singh
• Liberty is derive from Latin word 'Liber' which means to be free. However liberty also contains certain
reasonable restrictions within it.

• The concept of liberty has been at the heart of liberalism. It recognizes liberty as one of the fundamental
social values.

• Caudwell asserts that 'liberty is a concept about whose nature men have quarreled perhaps more than
about any other'.
• Liberals such as Lord Acton and Tocqueville believe that liberty and equality are incompatible.
• Henry Benjamin Constant has differentiated between Modern and Ancient liberty. Ancient Liberty
meant citizenship rights i.e. the right to participate in politics whereas Modern Liberty means protection
and pursuit of rights.
• Liberty according to Miller has three main traditions.
(a) The Republican tradition which emanates from the writings of Machiavelli, Rousseau as well as
Hanna Arendt. It stands for Political Freedom and believes that freedom can be realized only
through public service & public activities.
(b) Liberal Tradition in which it means absence of restraints. It stands for free market & a minimalist
state.
(c) Idealistic Tradition which believes that freedom is when a person has autonomy. It believes
that the state is a perfect Institution and obedience to laws leads to man's perfection. This has
been supported by Hegel, Kant & Green. The Idealist perspective as such believes in a stronger
state.
• In the contemporary times Hannah Pitkin has distinguished between Liberty & Freedom. Liberty meant
protection from state interference whereas freedom means active involvement in politics.
• Hayek & Berlin do not differentiate between Freedom & Liberty.
THEORIST DEFINITION OF LIBERTY
Hobbes By liberty is understood... absence of external impediments, which
impediments may off take part of man's power to do what he would do.
Liberty is dependent on the silence of law.
Rousseau Liberty consists in the obedience of General Will.
Hegel Liberty is obedience to the law.
J.S. Mill The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own
good in our own way so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of
theirs or impede their effort to obtain it
Laski The absence of restraints upon the existence of those social conditions
which in modern civilization are a necessary guarantee of individual
happiness.

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Macpherson Liberty is living life to the fullest.

Marx Liberty is the realization of the necessities.

Montesquieu Liberty is the right to which the law permits.
J.S.Mill Liberty is not merely non-interference of the state but alone of the pressure
of the society, public opinion and conventions in the affairs of the individual.

Laski Liberty is the eager maintenance of that atmosphere in which men have
an opportunity to be their best selves

Negative Liberty
• The concept of liberty as emerged from the theory and practice of early liberalism is known as Negative
Liberty. This conception found classical expression in the writings of John Locke, David Hume, Adam
Smith, Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer, Bentham and J.S. Mill. In the 20th century the idea of negative
Liberty has been supported by Michel Oakeshotte, I. Berlin, Milton Friedman, Hannah Arendt, F.A.
Hayek and Robert Nozick
• It was only after the great movements' viz. Reformation, Renaissance and the commercial/industrial
revolution in Europe and the rise of the modern state that the question of individual liberty came to the
forefront. The demand for liberty was raised by the rising commercial class who was fighting against the
absolutist, religious, political order represented by the kings, feudal lords and papacy.
• In its rising phase, liberty was highly individualistic. It was regarded as liberty 'from the state'. Early
liberal writers saw the state as an 'evil' and a hindrance to the free development of the individual and held
that the liberty of the individual could be increased only by minimizing the functions of the state.
• For Locke, the main problem was the defense and establishment of liberty. He involved the doctrine
of natural law and natural rights to preserve the liberty of the individual against the exercise of arbitrary
authority.
• Physiocrats like Adam Smith advocated economic freedom - especially freedom from governmental
regulations in the economic affairs. Liberty is inseparable, the Physiocrats taught, from property and the
preservation of property is the primary duty of the state.
• The idea of liberty as 'freedom from the state which ended up in individualism was central to the theory
of Locke, Hume, Adam Smith, Bentham and Mill and other classical economists and philosophical
radicals.
Characteristics of Negative Liberty
The concept of negative liberty can be summarized as follows:
1. Negative liberty represents the early liberal assumption regarding man, society and the state. The view
is based on the autonomy of individual will, rationality and goodness of man. Only the individual knows
what is best for him. For the development of his personality, he requires certain freedoms from arbitrary
authorities which can act against his will. Negative liberty restricts the idea of freedom to the individual
and his person and sees both society and the state as anti-thesis. The proponents of negative liberty are
so much sensitive to the interference that they see both state and society as repressive institutions.
2. Freedom is absence of restraints. It is 'liberty from; as distinct from 'liberty to'. Hobbes describes it as
'silence of laws', Berlin defines it as 'absence of coercion', Milton Friedman terms it as 'absence of
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coercion of man by state, society or his fellowmen', According to Nozick, it is a natural right of
'self-ownership'.
3. Absence of restraints has very wide meaning. Restraints can be political, economic, civil, personal etc. In
political sphere, liberty means restraint upon the arbitrary authority of the state as well as minimum
interference of the state in the affairs of the individual; at economic level, it means free-trade, laissez faire
capitalist economy, and an unlimited right to property; at civil level, at means absolute freedom of opinion
and sentiment; at personal level, it means an area of personal affairs where individual can take decisions
without any interference of state or society.
4. The laws of the state cannot take away liberty but can only regulate it. Since liberty is liberty from the
state, the latter can guarantee it by restricting itself to the minimal functions. Law and liberty are
antithetical.
5. Liberty is neither identical with democracy, nor with equality or justice. The quest for justice or equality
can jeopardize liberty.
6. There is a distinction between liberty and the liberty of action. Liberty is simply the absence of coercive
interference by the state or society or other individuals and no more than that.
J.S. Mill on Liberty
• J.S. Mill's famous work On Liberty (1859) is a powerful and an eloquent plea for liberty of thought, liberty
of expression and liberty of action.
• In championing the cause of liberty, Mill had a broad goal in mind; the Greek ideal of self-development.
The liberty he sought to defend was the liberty of the individual to develop, enrich and expand his
personality.
• As such he pleads that the individual should be left free to realize his own interests the way he likes
provided he does not interfere with the similar freedom of others.
• Mill defines liberty as 'pursuing our own good in our own way so long as we do not attempt to
deprive other of their or impede their efforts to obtain it.
• Mill: Over himself over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign... The only purpose for
which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of the civilized community against his
will is to prevent harm to others.
• Mill argued that social tyranny may be more formidable than many kinds of political oppressions because
social tyranny leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating more into the details of life. Protection against
political tyranny was not enough unless absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment - scientific, moral and
theological - is guaranteed.
• Mill: If all mankind minus one were of one opinion and only one person were of the contrary
opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one.
• Silencing an unorthodox opinion is not only wrong but harmful because it robs mankind of an opportunity
to become acquainted with ideas that may possibly be true, or partly true. All silencing of discussion is
an assumption of infallibility.
• Mill based freedom of opinion and expression on three grounds
1. Any opinion we silence may be true,
2. Though the silenced opinion may be erroneous, it may be partly true and because the prevailing
opinion on any subject is rarely the complete truth, it is only by the collusion of adverse opinion
that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied,

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3. Even if the prevailing opinion may be completely true, it will inevitably become a dogma,
prejudice and formula unless it is exposed to the challenge of free discussion.
• Mill divided the activities of the individual into two parts; self-regarding and other-regarding.
• The self-regarding action may include those matters which affect the individual himself, having no
concern with others. While the individual was to be free in doing those things which affected himself
alone, his independence was restricted in those cases which had a bearing on others. Society has no
right to use force or compulsion in regard to matters which affect the individual alone and have no concern
to others.
• In the self-regarding functions Mill included (i) the inward domain of consciousness demanding liberty of
consciences in the most comprehensive sense, liberty of thought and feeling; absolute freedom of opinion
and sentiment on all subjects, practical or speculative, scientific, moral or theological (ii) liberty of tastes
and pursuits; of framing a plan of our life to suit our own character of doing things without impediments
from other fellow creatures so long as we do not harm others; (iii) liberty of combination among
individuals; freedom to unite for any purpose not involving harm to others.
20th Century Exponents of Negative Liberty
• The concept of negative liberty has been revived by a number of writers such as Oakeshotte, I. Berlin,
Maurice Cranston, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Robert Nozick and others in the twentieth
century.
• Oakeshotte writes, 'Rights are liberties and therefore arises not from law but from the silence of law'.
BERLIN
• In his work Two Essays on Liberty” Berlin opines that the defense of liberty consists in the negative sense
as warding off interference. Every place for civil liberties and individual rights, every protest against the
encroachment of public authority of the mass hypnosis of custom or organized propaganda springs from
this individualistic, and much disputed, conception of man.
• For Berlin capability is not the criteria for liberty i.e. if a man cannot understand Hegel, he cannot
claim he is free.
• Berlin agrees with Mill, Constant and de Tocqueville that 'no society is free unless it is governed by
two principles (i) no power but only right can be regarded as absolute so that people can refuse
to behave inhumanly, (ii) there are frontiers drawn within which men should be inviolable.
• Berlin describes liberty as 'absence of coercion'. To coerce a man is to deprive him of freedom.
Negative liberty is simply the area within which a man can act unobstructed by others.
• Berlin believes that by being free on this sense (negative) means not being interfered by others. The
wider the area of noninterference, the wider my freedom. In the context of negative liberty,
• Berlin supports the Pre-Greek notion of man as Free when not in chains. Reflecting the views of
‘Helvetius’ Berlin contends free man is one who is not in cages However it is not lack of freedom
if man is not able to fly like an eagle or swim like an whole.
• For Berlin, positive Liberty results in Brutal expression whereas liberty means choice & plurality.
• For Berlin, liberty has 3 features :
(a) Freedom from interference
(b) One’s capacity to choose.
(c) Absence of restrains.

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• For Berlin, liberty is best guaranteed in democracy but there is no nexus between democracy & liberty
as the issue of who govern is less important then for what how and what far the governments interfere.
• Berlin maintains that there is no relationship between liberty and democracy, nor is it related to
justice or equality. 'Liberty is liberty nor equality or fairness or justice or culture or human
happiness or a quite conscience.
• Berlin is also known for his later work Against the Current
• Berlin has been criticized by G. Macullam.
FRIEDMAN
• Milton Friedman in his book "Capitalism and Freedom" writes that liberty means, 'the absence of
coercion of a man by his fellowmen' and feels that state interference in the economic matters is
harmful to the economic liberty of the people.
• By economic liberty Friedman means the availability of free market capitalist economy.
ROBERT NOZICK
• The libertarian writers like Robert Nozick have also defined liberty as absence of any social and legal
constraint'. The libertarians believe that only a free capitalist market economy and non-interference of
the state in the affairs of the individual can enhance liberty.
• Nozick has supported Negative Liberty and Free market in his work “Anarchism State and Utopia”.
• Robert Nozick identifies liberty with the natural right to self-ownership.
• For Nozick the limits of legitimate liberty are set by our natural rights and they are best understood
in the propriety sense.
• Drawing from Locke Nozick supports inalienable rights & believes that the state has no justification in
limiting them.
• Nozick believes that the force by the state may violate individual rights.
• The state for Nozick is for protection of property and as such is seen as a Night Watchman.
• Night watchman according to Nozick cannot do anything but just protect property.
• For Nozick inequalities at the level of production cannot be corrected at the level of distribution.
• Nozick has been critical of state based taxation and believes that a market based on Free exchange best
promotes individual liberty.
HAYEK
• Hayek has supported Negative Liberty on the ground that a free man is one who is not subject to coercion
by the arbitrary will of the other.
• Hayek condemns the socialist planned economic system and has described it “Road to Serfdom”
• Hayek is also a critique of welfare state for undermining individual's capacity of initiative and
responsibilities.
• Hayek has elaborated on Three dimensions of Freedom :
(a) Political Freedom which means right to participate
(b) Inner Freedom which means right to fulfillment.
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(c) Freedom as power which means ability to do certain things.

• For Hayek “Political Liberty is an illegitimate expression of freedom”.

• Hayek believed that all do not have the genuine conditions to be free and hence it is better that some be
free than none.
• For Hayek the private world must be protected which is essential pre-requisite of a liberal social order.
• For Hayek law, liberty & property are inseparable.
• Hayek rejects collectivism i.e. socialism/ welfarism and also does not support classical laissez-faire which
gave only police functions to the state.
• Hayek supports a state which is the promoter and adjudicator in the market.
• Hayek in his work “Mirrors of Social Justice” has criticized the Rawlsian system.
• Hayek believes that sate interference is Futile.
.Positive Liberty
• The nineteenth century was an age of transition - the transition from negative phase of liberalism to
positive one. It was also an age which consciously grouped towards findings the meaning of liberty and
of defining its meaning and securing its end.
• Another important development was to integrate socialism as an element of liberal creed. In particular, it
meant reinterpreting the term 'economic liberty'. The extension of state control was not considered as
threat to liberty; it was the only effective means of enlarging it and making its meaning real for not a
section but for as many members of the community as possible.
• Exponents of positive liberty justified the widening area of governmental control and the freedom secured
through the state in sectors where the impact of an exploitative economy denied to a considerable section
of the community opportunities for free self-development.
• The idea of 'liberty through the state' of the enjoyment of certain equal opportunities received attention
in the writings of Green, Bosanquet. Hobhouse, Laski, Barker etc.
• In the contemporary times Positive Liberty has been supported by C.B. Macpherson and John Rawls
• Green viewed both the individual and the liberty in the social context. He related individual good with the
social good and redefined freedom as conforming to the common good.
• Green pointed out, freedom is not absence of restraints but 'the positive power of doing and enjoying
and that too something which we do or enjoy in common with other.
• For Bosanquet, liberty meant 'freedom to' - i.e., conditions necessary for free and full development of
the human self, which every state must ensure, the positive liberals like Lindsay, Barker, Laski, Russell
confirmed the notion of liberty expounded by Green.
• According to Bosanquet, liberty depends on (i) the nature of the individual and (ii) the nature of liberty.
• For Bosanquet, negative view of liberty means merely freedom from constraints, whereas positive
liberty means not only freedom from but 'freedom to' - conditions necessary for free and full development
of the self, which the state must ensure. The positive concept includes the negative one since it
represents a greater area of activity and more extensive self-choice of self-determination.

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• In the twentieth century, the state was considered a source and a condition of liberty. 'The state in brief
is at best an adjuster, a coordinator, and the authority it exercises is morally valid only if it seeks to
promote liberty.
Characteristics of Positive Liberty
1. Liberty is essential for man's material and moral development. Like justice and equality, it is not an
empty social idea floating in the air, but drives its specific content and meaning from a particular social
and historical milieu in which it has to be understood. In the present context, it is not absence of
restraints but a positive condition for free and full development of the individual in the society.
2. All restraints are not evil. Positive liberty affirmed that restraints in some context are not antagonistic
to liberty but its guarantee. On this ground, it justified the extension of social and welfare legislation.
3. At the core of this concept of liberty is the fact that there can be no liberty without equality or unless
there is some measure of economy equality. Equality provides the basis on which liberty comes to
acquire a positive meaning.
4. Rights are necessary conditions of liberty. It is equally related to justice and morality.
5. The state is not an enemy of liberty but its best promoter. The duty of the state is not to leave the
individual alone but, through positive action, create conditions and opportunities for the realization of
liberty.
6. Liberty implies participation
Views of H.J. Laski
• The most comprehensive views on positive liberty were expressed by Harold J. Laski in his book "A
Grammer of Politics".
• Liberty for Laski is the eager maintenance of that atmosphere in which men have an opportunity to
be their best selves.
• For Laski Liberty is the product of rights and is a positive thing, it doesn't merely mean the absence of
restraints'. Liberty is not absence of restraints because all conduct is social conduct and whatever one
does, he does it as a member of the society. Hence liberty involves in its nature restraints.
• Laski relates liberty to the availability of opportunities.
• Laski does not want to leave liberty to the mercy of the state because 'liberty is never real unless the
government can be called to account and it should always be called to account whenever it invades rights.
• The three kinds of liberty which Laski talks about are
1. Private Liberty
2. Political Liberty, and
3. Economic Liberty.

• Private Liberty refers to 'the opportunity to exercise freedom of choice in those areas of life where the
results of one's efforts. Religion is the best example of this kind of liberty. Private liberty is negative
Private liberty is 'an opportunity to be fully himself in the private relations of life'.
• Political Liberty means the power to be active in the affairs of the state. Political liberty, to be real,
requires two essential conditions (i) proper education to a point where one can express oneself in an
intelligible manner, (ii) provision of honest and straightforward news, which alone can be a reliable guide
or ground for political judgment.
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• Economic liberty means 'security and the opportunity to find reasonable significance in the earning of
one's daily bread'. It means freedom from the constant fear of unemployment and insufficiency which
saps the whole strength of the individual personality. Economic liberty also implies democracy in
industry. It means two things; (i) the industrial government is subject to the system of rights which
are obtained to the citizens, and (ii) the industrial direction must be of a character that makes it
the rule of laws made by cooperation and not by compulsion. A system built upon fear is on
compatible with liberty.
• Laski believes that freedom will not be achieved for the masses without special guarantees. He mentions
three conditions for the realization of liberty.
• Firstly, Laski feels that freedom cannot exist in the presence of special privileges. Liberty is possible
only on the condition of equality.
• Secondly, positive liberty can be enjoyed only in the presence of rights.
• Thirdly, the government must be responsible to the people.
Contemporary supporters of Positive Liberty
• In recent times, positive liberty has been supported by many liberal writers like, Macpherson, John Gray
and John Rawls.
• Macpherson in his book Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval 1977 defines positive liberty as 'a
man's power in the developmental sense'. Developmental power means 'man's ability to use and
develop his capacities'. It means removing impediments to gain access to the means of life and labor.
The measure of liberty is the absence of the extractive power and the increase in the developmental
power of the individual.
• For Macpherson, Positive Liberty was the capacity to act as full human being.
• Macpherson's theory is also known as Developmental Liberty in which men is free only when they
realize their creative capacity and can be seen as doer and exertor.
• Macpherson has also authored Real World of Democracy 1966 and Political Theory of Possessive
Individualism 1973
• According to John Gray, 'The political content of the positive view of liberty is that if certain resources,
power or amenities are needed for self-realization to be effectively achievable, then having these
resources must be considered a part of freedom itself'. It is on this basis that modern liberalism has
developed the welfare state so a freedom enhancing institution. It signifies primarily and centrally having
the resources and opportunities to act so as to make the best of one's life.
• Again Rawls argues that, 'The demand that liberty be maximized (or equalized) is given a definite content
only when liberty is decomposed into a set of basic liberties such as freedom of speech, association or
movement, occupation and life style etc.
• The content of basic freedoms is not fixed but embodies the conditions necessary in a given historical
circumstances of growth and exercise of power of autonomy, creativity, development, self-determination
and social support for the goals of individual thought and action.
Marxist Concept of Freedom
• The great contribution of Marx and Marxism has been to demonstrate how private property in the means
of production had robbed the great mass of the working class of their freedom, and to work out the
theoretical foundations of how to win back freedom.

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• Marxist view of freedom draws from Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant and Hegel who conceived of freedom self-
determination, self-realization, self-development, self-fulfillments and self-creativeness.
• Marx and Marxism tended to see freedom in terms of removal of obstacles to human emancipation i.e.
Notable among such obstacles, Marx pointed out, were the conditions of wage labour, the conditions of
their life and labour, and therewith all conditions of existence of modern society ... over which the
individual proletariat has no control and over which no social organization can give him control.
• Positively, he meant by freedom, the full development of human mastery over the forces of nature and
humanity's own nature. Echoing these views,
• According to the Marxist view overcoming the obstacles to human emancipation is a collective enterprise
and hence 'freedom is collective in the sense that it consists of the socially cooperative and organized
imposition of human control over both nature and the social conditions of production. True freedom is
inconceivable without a free society.
• Such a freedom will be fully realized only by the suppression of capitalist mode of production, and relating
it with a form of association in which 'it is the association of individuals which puts the conditions of the
free development and movement of individuals under their control'. It is only then that within the
community has each individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions.
• Marxism sees Freedom as solution to Alienation
• The dehumanizing effect of capitalist society based on private ownership of property and means of
production were elaborated by Marx in his concept of alienation.
• Alienation means loss of personal identity or a feeling of personal identity.
• For Marx wrote, private ownership of the means of production leads to alienation of man from his labour
and its products. Labour becomes a commodity like any other which means that the worker himself has
become a commodity and is obliged to sell himself at the market price determined by the minimum cost
of maintenance. The product does not belong to him but to the man who has purchased his labour.
Labour which is the life of the species becomes only a means to individual animalized life.
• The social essence of man becomes a mere instrument of individual existence. Alienated labour deprives
man of his species life; other human beings become alien to him, communal existence becomes
impossible and life is merely a system of conflicting egoisms. Property which arises from alienated labour,
becomes in turn a source of alienation.
• The process has its effect on the capitalist too, depriving him of his personality in a different way. As the
worker is reduced to animal conditions, the capitalist is reduced to a symbol of money power. He becomes
a personification of this power and his human qualities are transformed into an aspect of it. In such a
situation, where labour becomes a servitude, a forced labour, a labour of self-sacrifice, there can be no
freedom. An alienated man is an enslaved man, enduring torment in his productivity. 'He develops no
free physical or spiritual energy but mortifies his body and ruins his spirit.
• True freedom can be achieved only by doing away with alienation and restoring the essence of man to
his existence. For this purpose, aboliton of private property in the means of production and the division
of labour is a must. This can only be achieved through a revolutionary transformation of society from a
capitalist to a socialist/communist one.
• Marxism believes that Freedom begins where necessity ends.
• Engel in his work “Anti-duhring” believed that “freedom was when men were out of the bonds of
necessity
• As Engels said. 'Freedom is the recognition of necessity'

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• For Engels, freedom meant acquisition of knowledge and liberty could be realized only when men be
free from the realms of necessity.
• Marxism takes a collectivistic concept of freedom. In order to make the individual free, one has to free a
large social entity (a class, nation or mankind).
• In the Communist Manifesto Marx & Engel asserted that in a free communist society the “free
development of one would be the essential cont for the free development of all.
• Marx believed that only in a classless society the felling of fellowship, cooperation & instincts could lead
of genuine liberty.
• In this work “On the Jewish Question” Marx asserted that liberty and property are opposed to each
other.
The Neo-Marxist Understanding of Freedom
Herbert Marcuse
• The Neo-Marxist have further expanded the Marxist analysis of freedom of which the work done by
Herbert Marcuse, Jurgen Habermas, George Luckas & Erich Fromn are important.
• ‘Marcuse in his work “One Dimensional Man’ has proved that capitalism even though has removed
traditional obstacles to liberty but has stifled freedom and rationality by new form of dominations and
repression.
• For Marcuse, the Mass Media played an important role in this as it surges the trivial material wants of
the people which men continuously aspire for and forget their exploitation.
• The market increases the purchasing power but the increased purchasing power is also because of the
additional surplus generated. The media obstructs the growth of class consciousness by justifying
the unjustified.
• For Marcuse “man is enslaved in cage of gold and so much involved in it that he has forgotten the
joy of flying in open sky”
• Marcuse's other book—“Eros and Civilization”
Jurgen Habermas
• For Habermas the problem of freedom is because of what he calls the Legitimization Crisis
• Drawing from Marxist idea of ‘Fethisism” Habermas believes that with the dominance of Science and
Technology human rationality has been replaced by technical efficiency.
• Democracy and market Society reduces the relationship between State and Individuals as buyers and
sellers.
• Democracy operates through groups and associations and men get the right to freedom of expression
but that is only within the group. In other words, in a market democracy individuals have a worth only in
a group not individually.
• Individuals in a market society become like automated machine unless rationality and the responsibility
of the people is reasserted freedom cannot be realized
• Habermas has written two Books
1. Knowledge & Human Interest
2. Critique of Rationality.
George Luckas
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• According to George Luckas, every society has its own class & each class has its own ideology which
is the basis of its consciousness & existence. However with the expansion of capitalism the proletariat
is isolated by the creation of universal consciousness & continuous exploitation is done under it.
This is the basic reason for loss of human freedom.
Erich Fromn
• Eric Fromn has done a psychological study of human isolation in capitalism.
• According to Fromn, Capitalism with its dominance on Science and Technology kills the Creative instincts
of man & checks the development of social relation between men.
• The physical aloofness leads to moral aloofness which ultimately leads to Shictzophernia.
• For Fromn spontaneous love & productive love is the way out for human emancipation.

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