Positive Freedom

This is the first volume to treat the idea of positive freedom in detail and from multiple perspectives.

This book explains why we should stop thinking of freedom as limited to a right to be left alone. It explores how Kantian philosophy and Jewish thought instead give rise to a concept of positive freedom. At heart, freedom is inextricably linked to the obligation to respect the autonomy and dignity of others. Freedom thus requires relationships with others and provides an important source of meaning in liberal democratic societies. While individualism is said to foster detachment, positive freedom fosters relations. Moving from moral theory to law, duties are seen as intrinsic to rights. The book considers test cases involving the law of expression, regarding authorial rights and women's prayer at Jerusalem's holy site of the Western Wall. Affirmative duties of respect are essential. Rights held by copyright owners require that all authors – including so-called users – are shown respect. Moreover, rights held by the authorities at the Western Wall require that all worshippers – including those whose interpretation of Jewish law differs from that adopted by the authorities – are respected.

This book argues that the distinction between positive and negative freedom remains highly pertinent today, despite having fallen out of fashion in the late twentieth century. It proposes a new reading of this distinction for the twenty-first century, building on the work of Constant, Green and Berlin who led the historical development of these ideas. The author defends the idea that freedom is a dynamic interaction between two inseparable, yet sometimes fundamentally, opposed positive and negative concepts – the yin and yang of freedom. Positive freedom is achieved when one succeeds in doing what is right, while negative freedom is achieved when one is able to advance one’s wellbeing. In an environment of culture wars, resurging populism and challenge to progressive liberal values, recognising the duality of freedom can help us better understand the political dilemmas we face and point the way forward. The book analyses the duality of freedom in more philosophical depth than previous studies and places it within the context of both historical and contemporary political thinking. It will be of interest to students and scholars of liberalism and political theory.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Original Title Page -- Original Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I The Negative Conception of Freedom -- Chapter 1 Hayek's Notion of Freedom -- Chapter 2 Constraints on Freedom -- Chapter 3 Free Action, Free Person and Free Society -- Chapter 4 Limits of Negative Freedom in Capitalism -- Chapter 5 The Hybrid View -- Part II The Positive Conception of Freedom -- Chapter 6 Green's Notion ofFreedom -- Chapter 7 Kant on Rational Self-Determination -- Chapter 8 Hegel on Concrete Freedom -- Chapter 9 Communitarians on the Social Context of Freedom -- Chapter 10 Freedom as the Power for Self-Determination -- Chapter 11 The Historical Account: Freedoms and Unfreedoms in Capitalism -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Original Title Page -- Original Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I The Negative Conception of Freedom -- Chapter 1 Hayek's Notion of Freedom -- Chapter 2 Constraints on Freedom -- Chapter 3 Free Action, Free Person and Free Society -- Chapter 4 Limits of Negative Freedom in Capitalism -- Chapter 5 The Hybrid View -- Part II The Positive Conception of Freedom -- Chapter 6 Green's Notion ofFreedom -- Chapter 7 Kant on Rational Self-Determination -- Chapter 8 Hegel on Concrete Freedom -- Chapter 9 Communitarians on the Social Context of Freedom -- Chapter 10 Freedom as the Power for Self-Determination -- Chapter 11 The Historical Account: Freedoms and Unfreedoms in Capitalism -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index

In this new and entirely revised edition of his study of Green's theory of positive freedom, Ben Wempe argues that the far-reaching and beneficial influence of Green's political doctrine, on public policy as well as in the field of political theory, was founded on a misinterpretation of his philosophical stand, since the metaphysical basis on which Green argued for his political position was largely neglected. The book discusses Green's philosophical development and examines an important, hitherto underrated, influence that went into the formation of his philosophical opinions. It then considers Green's metaphysics and describes how some omissions from the concise version of his metaphysical doctrine, as it is found in his published works, may be remedied by reference to Green's unpublished material.

Isaiah Berlin made a now classic distinction between negative and positive conceptions of freedom. In this book Yildiz Silier introduces a fresh way of looking at these conceptions and presents a new defence of the positive conception of freedom. Revealing how the internal debate between various versions of negative freedom give rise to hybrid conceptions of freedom which in turn are superseded by various versions of the positive conception of freedom, Silier concludes that Marx's concrete historical account of positive freedom resolves many of the key debates in this area and provides a fruitful framework to evaluate the freedoms and unfreedoms that are specific to capitalism. This book examines the thought of the paradigm thinkers in this debate, F.A. Hayek on negative freedom and T.H. Green on positive freedom and then ranges over the contributions to this debate made by both classical thinkers such as Kant, Hegel, and Marx, and those involved in contemporary debates on communitarianism, capitalism and self-determination, such as C. Taylor, D. Miller, F. Oppenheim and C.B. Macpherson.