POLS 110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Negative Liberty, Positive Liberty, Free Society
24 Jan 2017
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It derives from an application of our concept to groups of men as a whole which gives them a sort of collective liberty. It refers to the extent to which a person is guided in his actions by his own will, reason or lasting conviction, rather than by momentary impulse or circumstance. Inner freedom and freedom in the sense of absence of coercion will together determine how much use a person can make of his knowledge of opportunities: liberty: absence of restraint and constraint. Except in the sense of choosing the lesser evil in a situation forced on him by another, he is unable to either use his own intelligence or knowledge or to follow his own aims and beliefs. It requires the agent to take an active part in gaining control or mastery of themselves. The self with which they identify must take large of the lesser or more partial selves that lurk within every individual.
