Liberty is a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual has the right to act according to his or her own will.
Individualist and classical liberal conceptions of liberty relate to the freedom of the individual from outside compulsion or coercion.
Opinions on what constitute liberty can vary widely, but can be generally classified as positive liberty and negative liberty. Positive liberty asserts that freed...
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Liberty is a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual has the right to act according to his or her own will.
Individualist and classical liberal conceptions of liberty relate to the freedom of the individual from outside compulsion or coercion.
Opinions on what constitute liberty can vary widely, but can be generally classified as positive liberty and negative liberty. Positive liberty asserts that freedom is the ability of society to achieve an end. For example, Puritans such as Cotton Mather often referred to liberty in their writings, but focused on the liberty from sin (e.g. sexual urges) even at the expense of liberty from the government. In the negative sense, one is considered free to the extent to which no person interferes with his or her activity. According to Thomas Hobbes, for example, "a free man is he that... is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do."
John Stuart Mill, in his work, On Liberty, was the first to recognize...
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