...Government Promote Positive Liberty? The idea of liberty, or freedom, varies between different theorists. One theorist, Isaiah Berlin, focused on the difference between two different ways of thinking about political liberty (Cherniss & Hardy, 2010). Berlin called these two different concepts negative and positive liberty. According to Berlin, negative freedom can be defined as ‘freedom from’, that is, freedom from constraint or interference of others. In contrast, positive freedom can be defined in two ways: ‘freedom to’, that is the ability to pursue and achieve willed goals; and also as autonomy or self-rule, as opposed to the dependence on others (Cherniss & Hardy, 2010). Keeping the idea of positive liberty at the forefront, this essay will focus on what positive liberty is and whether the government should promote it. As already mentioned, positive liberty can be defined as the ‘freedom to’ (Cherniss & Hardy, 2010). Smith (2008) adds that positive liberty is “the idea of self-government”. Under positive liberty, a person may decide how they wish to live, but they may unconsciously conform to the beliefs of society, religion or their parents (Smith, 2008). Positive liberty asks the question of “Who, or what, is the source of control or interference?” (Garner et al., 2012). Positive liberty therefore emphasizes the source of control, rather than the area of control associated with negative liberty (Garner, Ferdinand & Lawsom, 2012). Positive liberty is the view...
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...Negative liberty is the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints. One has negative liberty to the extent that actions are available to one in this negative sense. Positive liberty is the possibility of acting — or the fact of acting — in such a way as to take control of one's life and realize one's fundamental purposes. While negative liberty is usually attributed to individual agents, positive liberty is sometimes attributed to collectivities, or to individuals considered primarily as members of given collectivities. The idea of distinguishing between a negative and a positive sense of the term ‘liberty’ goes back at least to Kant, and was examined and defended in depth by Isaiah Berlin in the 1950s and ’60s. Discussions about positive and negative liberty normally take place within the context of political and social philosophy. They are distinct from, though sometimes related to, philosophical discussions about free will. Work on the nature of positive liberty often overlaps, however, with work on the nature of autonomy. As Berlin showed, negative and positive liberty are not merely two distinct kinds of liberty; they can be seen as rival, incompatible interpretations of a single political ideal. Since few people claim to be against liberty, the way this term is interpreted and defined can have important political implications. Political liberalism tends to presuppose a negative definition of liberty: liberals generally claim that if one favors individual liberty...
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...Ramona Zimmermann 37173 AB Psychology 3 FREEDOM Freedom starts with a principle of self-control, also known as self-ownership. In a free society, each and every person has legal control (or "ownership") of their own body and mind. As such, the concept of freedom refers to a certain type of political empowerment. It refers specifically to equal empowerment. In other words, a free society is one with an equal distribution of legal rights and in which each and every person has as much legal rights as possible. Because freedom entails political equality, freedom can only logically entail as much legal rights as compatible with the same legal rights in others. In a free society, any one person cannot have so many legal rights that all other people could not logically have the same amount of legal rights. For example, freedom does not include the legal right to enslave someone else because freedom includes the legal right to not be enslaved. In another example, freedom does not include the legal right to non-defensively punch other people in the face against their will because freedom includes the legal right to not be offensively punched. Basically, a free person has the legal allowance to do whatever he or she wants insofar as he or she does not offensively harm or coerce other people against those other people's wills. Remember, the limitation is a logical requirement. Freedom obviously can not include the legal right to limit other people's freedom because that...
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...The idea that the role of the state should be minimal in order to protect the liberty of individuals is a view fundamentally based in liberalism. Many liberals hold a positive view of human nature, seeing us as autonomous, and according to Locke and Bentham rational beings who act in their own self-interest, unlike many conservative theorists who view humans as fundamentally flawed. This positive view of human nature leads to the argument that the state should merely act as a neutral umpire, as is the view of Mill. Firstly it is necessary to establish what liberty is. This may be considered as the freedom from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority, this is known as negative freedom, and is a view typical to liberals. Another view includes the application of positive freedom, the ability to carry out our desires and the possession of resources to do so, this requires more state intervention. Anarchism however criticizes the state for limiting liberty unnecessarily, Individualist anarchists argue that negative liberty is required by the respect that we owe each person as sovereign over their mind. This may be supported by Locke’s view that humans are born free, however the anarchist view would be that all states oppress, according to Proudhon, the state humiliates. However Hobbes argues that in a state of nature, a society without a state, there would be a lack of negative freedom due to the ‘war of all against all’, making law a necessary evil, preventing the exploitation...
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...Therefore implying that each individual should have freedom. However the extent to this freedom causes a divide within liberals, as shown by Isiah Berlin who distinguished between ‘negative’ liberty and ‘positive’ liberty. Liberals disagree over the extent and nature of freedom. ‘Negative’ liberty supported by classic liberals implies that individuals should be free from constraint, free from external restriction and a lack of interference allowing for freedom of choice therefore a need for the rolling back of the state. This firm belief in individualism-as humans are rational, leads to the classic liberal belief that individuals can flourish without state intervention as human beings are self-interested creatures who are self-reliant and therefore create an atomistic society. This freedom supported by classic liberals allows individuals to act as they wish whatever the consequences as the consequences can’t be said to limit freedom (as that would be against their belief of complete freedom) but are bad luck, not caused by the state therefore the objects that interfere with the classic liberals ideas of freedom include state legislations not natural occurrences that can’t be stopped. Therefore they believe in the silence of the laws to ensure freedom. Modern liberals on the other hand who believe in ‘positive’ freedom have a different idea of the concept of freedom. Modern liberals believe that freedom is about self-realisation and self-realisation allows individuals to flourish which...
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...which McPherson gathered in a sweep of events, which accounts the political, social, and culture aspects during the Civil War. In Abraham Lincoln and the Second Revolution, McPherson takes a different style of writing by offering a series of engaging essays on Lincoln and the Civil War that have rarely been discussed in such depth. McPherson displays his insight prose as he thoroughly examines the critical- themes of American history. He examines the President’s role as commander- in -chief of the Union forces explaining how Lincoln forged a national military strategy for victory. He exposes how Lincoln used parables and figurative language to communicate the purpose of the War as well as a new meaning of liberty for the people of the North. The title derives from McPherson, examining the Civil War as America’s second revolution. He describes how the Republican Congress, in 1860 had passed an astonishing list of new laws which rivaled the first hundred days of the New Deal as well as how the War destroyed the social...
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...Distinguish between positive and negative freedom Freedom is the ability to think or act as one wishes in a capacity that can associated with the individual, social group or a nation. Both Modern and Classical Liberals believe in freedom and promote individual autonomy, however don’t believe in unlimited freedom as this may affect other people’s liberties. Isaiah Berlin famously distinguished between negative freedom and positive freedom in his book ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’. Since this, Classical liberals have endorsed Negative Freedom. While Modern Liberals revised their view of freedom and supports Positive Freedom. The negative view advocates freedom with regard to independence of an individual from interference by institutions or governments, and fundamentally the absence of eternal restrictions or constraints upon the individual. Berlin argued that "I am normally said to be free to the degree to which no man or body of men interferes with my activity. Political liberty in this sense is simply the area within which a man can act unobstructed by others”. It follows that the human incapacity to attain a goal, is not lack of political freedom. This is not to say, however, that state intervention in the form of economic management or social welfare can never be justified, but only that it cannot be justified in terms of freedom. Locke, for example, is normally thought of as one of the fathers or classical liberalism and therefore as a staunch defender of the negative concept of...
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...American National Government Topic 1 American Government: An Introduction Assessment 1 Chapter 1 Directions: Answer the following questions after viewing the assigned Power Point presentation and reading related materials in the text. Be sure to use complete sentences. 1. Define government and politics. Compare these two terms and cite examples of each. Explain how the two terms are distinct but related to each other. · Government is the people who run the country. Politics is the process followed by the leaders of political groups who rule the country. Government implements the policies of the lands, such as with the judicial branch to enforce the laws, the legislative branch to create the laws, and the executive branch to perform national security duties. And politics are the tool utilized by the government. They both utilize political science which is the study of government and politics. While they both perform and aid the same basic function of running the country, politics is just the process while the government is the actual facility performing the tasks. 2. What is anarchy? Can anarchy ever a viable alternative to government, in your opinion? Why or why not? · Anarchy is living in a state of lawlessness. I believe it cannot, because humans do not function correctly without some type of structure. Without structure there will be total chaos. Murders and other unmentionable crimes will occur with no repercussions being put into place. 3. What...
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...Berlin distinguished between a `negative' theory of liberty and a `positive' one. Early liberals have believed in Negative Freedom. It is the absence of external restrictions and constraints upon the individual, usually understood as non-interference. It is often associated with freedom of choice and importance of privacy. However, classical liberals feared that `free' individuals may exploit others for their own interest and advantage hence why law and government are necessary. Negative freedom is therefore upheld primarily through checks and balances proposed by Montesquieu on government power through codified constitutions and bills of rights. Examples of negative freedom include civil liberties, such as freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of religious worship. Modern liberals, on the other hand, believed that the unrestrained freedom promoted by classical liberalism has brought about new forms of poverty and injustice. T.H. Green challenged the classical liberal notion of liberty. Negative freedom merely removes external constraints on the individual, giving the individual freedom of choice. He proposed the idea of positive freedom in the place of negative freedom. Freedom that allows the individual to develop and attain individuality as well the opportunity to realize their potential, attain skills and knowledge and achieve fulfilment. Although Modern liberals revised classical liberalism version of liberty, they did not fully abandon...
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...Michael Conger AMH 2010 http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/sons-of-liberty Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum Sons of Liberty This internet assignment that I will be writing will focus on the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty was an organization of American colonists that was created to protect the rights of the colonist and to fight taxation that was coming from the British. One of their biggest contributions was that they protested against the Stamp Act which was created to tax printed materials. The name of the site that I will be using is http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/sons-of-liberty. This website that I am using on my assignment is associated with both a virtual and physical museum located in Boston Massachusetts. After doing some research on the website, I could not find any information that related to any missions or purposes but it did mention who the provider of the site was. On the website, it says “this page was developed with the help of one of our great cast members here at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum.” On the bottom of the page, there is a picture of another contributor to the website. That is MCCA, which stands for Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. On the main page of the website I am writing about, there is no audio or video material but there are other links that can be clicked on and are accessible to watch learning videos on the Sons of Liberty and other events around that period in time. The way to access those videos is to...
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...and aims to justify the argument that modern liberalism departs considerably from classical liberalism. Modern liberalism departs from the ideas of classical liberalism with regards to the concept of freedom, although the extent of difference is limited. Isiah Berlin first discussed the concept of freedom in an essay published in 1958. Berlin proposed two concepts of liberty; positive, which is supported by modern liberalists, and negative, which is supported by classical liberals. The classical conception of negative liberty suggests that society is best when there is an absence of external restrictions or constraints on the individual. Therefore, classical liberals strongly supported full individual freedom. John Stuart Mill, a political philosopher known as the ‘father of classical liberalism’ argued that the government is controlling the actions of individuals for no reason. He therefore developed a theory of ‘true freedom’ based on the complete absence of constraint and therefore he supports Berlin’s concept of negative liberty. Further classical liberals who argued for the theory of negative liberty include John Locke and Jeremy Bentham....
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...What makes the public sphere distinct from the private sphere? The public sphere concept was developed since the times of the Aristotle. He sees the public sphere as the social and political space in which citizens come together to discus the issues of public concerns to form civic opinions. However, this concept changed in time and nowadays is seen as the space “where free and equal citizens come together to share information, to debate, to discuss, or to deliberate on common concerns”.[1] Public sphere is made distinct from the private sphere through the existence of public opinion and the fact that is has developed the public use of reason. Through its constitutive elements such as the constitutional civil liberties the access at public information the existence of a free, plural, and independent media system not under the state control make the private sphere indeed peculiar. Also the existence of civil societies which organize and promote the citizen agenda makes the public sphere dissimilar. In order to make a clear distinction between what makes the public sphere distinct from the private sphere I will have a close look at how the principle developed from the feudal system until the democratic system nowadays. A close analysis at the philosophers’ theories and the principles which intervenes with public sphere is helpful. Also its characteristics will be outlined in order to draw a line between the public and the private sphere. One characteristic and a product...
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...protection of individual rights is also common of both strands. These beliefs stem from the Enlightenment theory that individuals are distinct and valuable, with John Locke defines our (God-given) natural rights as "Life, liberty and property". Immanuel Kant views humans as "ends in themselves", implying that and he makes two implications; that individuals are unique, and that they share the same equal status. The general liberal view is that people should have the freedom to do what they want; to live and work and say what they wish. This is not absolute and Mill says in is essay 'On Liberty' that the "only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of civilized community against his will, is to prevent harm to others." This view only accepted minimal restrictions to prevent this and thus did not accept self-harm preventing restrictions that are apparent today such as cycle helmet or seatbelt laws. Isiah Berlin explains that there are two "different concepts of Liberty": 'negative', which typically reflects an earlier time period and bases its principles purely on the absence of external restrictions and constraints, and 'positive', which focuses on the autonomous nature of the individual and follows Mill's argument that liberty is more than just freedom from restrictions, but also man's capacity to develop and achieve self-realization and gain fulfilment. It is difficult however, to place such opposing views clearly...
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...Politics- Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow POLITICAL 110: US GOVERNMENT Feb. 14th, 2016 Professor Mark Stallo Politics- Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Civil Liberties and Social Responsibility in American Government Today Throughout our country’s history, civil liberties have influenced American social responsibility within the government. Civil liberties are fundamental rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by the Constitution. There are many examples of civil liberties mentioned in the Bill of Rights such as: freedom of speech, freedom of press, the right to a fair trial, the right to own property, and freedom of religion. (U.S. Department of Defense, 2016) The protection of these rights as guaranteed by the Constitution allows United States citizens to freely act in accordance with each civil liberty. For instance, on April 25th, 2015 local officials in Baltimore MD responded to citizens exercising their civil liberties including freedom of speech and right to protest. The events influenced the local officials and political leaders to react both negatively and positively. Although the people participating in the protest were able to exercise their right to protest and speak freely, this freedom was short lived. Eventually several protestors, civilians, and even news reporters were shot with rubber bullets, pepper-sprayed, arrested, or otherwise silenced during the demonstration. These events are very similar to another instance during 2014 in Ferguson...
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...A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM?: OBERGEFELL V. HODGES Kenji Yoshino The decision in Obergefell v. Hodges1 achieved canonical status even as Justice Kennedy read the result from the bench. A bare majority held that the Fourteenth Amendment required every state to perform and to recognize marriages between individuals of the same sex.2 The majority opinion ended with these ringing words about the plaintiffs: “Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”3 While Obergefell’s most immediate effect was to legalize same-sex marriage across the land, its long-term impact could extend far beyond this context. To see this point, consider how much more narrowly the opinion could have been written. It could have invoked the equal protection and due process guarantees without specifying a formal level of review, and then observed that none of the state justifications survived even a deferential form of scrutiny. The Court had adopted this strategy in prior gay rights cases.4 Instead, the Court issued a sweeping statement that could be compared to Loving v. Virginia,5 the 1967 case that invalidated bans on in––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law. I gratefully acknowledge receiving financial support from...
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