Contemporary Theories of Liberty. Lecture 2: Positive Liberty, Part I John Filling

Transcription

1 Contemporary Theories of Liberty Lecture 2: Positive Liberty, Part I John Filling jf582@cam.ac.uk

2 Overview 1. Negative v. positive liberty 2. Positive liberty (I): ability 3. Positive liberty (II): self-mastery 4. Positive liberty (III.a): self-determination 5. Positive liberty (III.b): self-realisation 6. Criticisms 7. Summing-up

3 Recap Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Negative liberty 1. x, an agent (typically an individual human being) 2. y, (actual/probable) external artificial interference 3. z, whatever this agent could otherwise do

4 Recap Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Negative liberty 1. x, an agent (typically an individual human being) 2. y, (actual/probable) external artificial interference 3. z, whatever this agent could otherwise do

5 Recap Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Negative liberty 1. x, an agent (typically an individual human being) 2. y, (actual/probable) external artificial interference 3. z, whatever this agent could otherwise do

6 Recap Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Negative liberty 1. x, an agent (typically an individual human being) 2. y, (actual/probable) external artificial interference 3. z, whatever this agent could otherwise do

7 Recap Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Negative liberty 1. x, an agent (typically an individual human being) 2. y, (actual/probable) external artificial interference 3. z, whatever this agent could otherwise do

8 Positive liberty s criticisms of negative liberty y: actual (or probable) external interference by specific agents with x s opportunities ØCan freedom be limited by 1. internal, not just external, interference? 2. lacking certain abilities, not just suffering some interference? 3. failure to exercise certain abilities, not just denial of opportunities for exercise?

9 The conventional view of negative v. positive Ø Freedom as a triadic relation (McCallum): x is (not) free from y to (not) do/become z

10 Overview 1. Negative v. positive liberty 2. Positive liberty (I): ability 3. Positive liberty (II): self-mastery 4. Positive liberty (III.a): self-determination 5. Positive liberty (III.b): self-realisation 6. Criticisms 7. Summing-up

11 Unfreedom? Inequality? 1. Unfreedom = (liability to) interference, lack of means 2. Poverty = lack of means, (liability to) interference 3. Poverty unfreedom 3. Poverty unfreedom 4. Primary task of the state = protect freedom 5. Primary task of the state poverty relief

12 Poverty as unfreedom Suppose that two people are prevented from boarding a plane, one because she lacks a passport and the other because she lacks a ticket. Was only the first unfree to board it? What the airline does to the ticketless passenger is exactly what the state does to the passportless one: block her way Cohen, Freedom and Money, p. 179, n. 29

13 Poverty as unfreedom The only way you won t be prevented from getting and using things that cost money in our society which is to say: most things is by offering money for them. [T]o lack money is to be liable to interference [T]he point of money is to extinguish interference: that is its defining function Cohen, Freedom and Money, pp

14 Overview 1. Negative v. positive liberty 2. Positive liberty (I): ability 3. Positive liberty (II): self-mastery 4. Positive liberty (III.a): self-determination 5. Positive liberty (III.b): self-realisation 6. Criticisms 7. Summing-up

15 Self-mastery I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever kind. This dominant self is then variously identified with reason, with my higher nature, my real, or ideal, or autonomous self, contrasted with irrational impulse, uncontrolled desires [T]he real self may be conceived as something wider than the individual, as a social whole a tribe, a race, a Church, a State Berlin (2002), pp

16 Self-mastery I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever kind. This dominant self is then variously identified with reason, with my higher nature, my real, or ideal, or autonomous self, contrasted with irrational impulse, uncontrolled desires [T]he real self may be conceived as something wider than the individual, as a social whole a tribe, a race, a Church, a State Berlin (2002), pp

17 Self-mastery I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever kind. This dominant self is then variously identified with reason, with my higher nature, my real, or ideal, or autonomous self, contrasted with irrational impulse, uncontrolled desires [T]he real self may be conceived as something wider than the individual, as a social whole a tribe, a race, a Church, a State Berlin (2002), pp

18 Self-mastery I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever kind. This dominant self is then variously identified with reason, with my higher nature, my real, or ideal, or autonomous self, contrasted with irrational impulse, uncontrolled desires [T]he real self may be conceived as something wider than the individual, as a social whole a tribe, a race, a Church, a State Berlin (2002), pp

19 Self-mastery Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Self-mastery 1. x, the real (individual or collective) self 2. y, irrational forces (inc. internal obstacles = all desires) 3. z, only what reason (or the state) commands

20 Self-mastery Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Self-mastery 1. x, the real (individual or collective) self 2. y, irrational forces (inc. internal obstacles = all desires) 3. z, only what reason (or the state) commands

21 Self-mastery Once I take this view, I am in a position to ignore the actual wishes of men or societies, to bully, oppress, torture them in the name, and on behalf, of their real selves Berlin (2002), p. 180

22 Overview 1. Negative v. positive liberty 2. Positive liberty (I): ability 3. Positive liberty (II): self-mastery 4. Positive liberty (III.a): self-determination 5. Positive liberty (III.b): self-realisation 6. Criticisms 7. Summing-up

23 Self-determination Is freedom not at stake when we find ourselves carried away by a less significant goal to override a highly significant one? our significant purposes can be frustrated by our own desires, and where these are sufficiently based on misappreciation, we consider them as not really ours, and experience them as fetters. A man's freedom can therefore be hemmed in by internal, motivational obstacles. Taylor (2006), p. 152

24 Self-determination 1. First-order desires = desires about actions Ø e.g. D 1, the desire to smoke 2. Second-order desires = desires about (first-order) desires Ø e.g. D 2, the desire not to act on D 1, the desire to smoke Ø Either: a) embrace the first-order desire as authentic Ø Or: b) reject it as inauthentic

25 Self-determination Freedom in general 1. x, a subject 2. y, a constraint 3. z, some action Self-determination 1. x, an individual 2. y, inauthentic forces (inc. internal obstacles = some [inauthentic] desires) to 3. z, pursue one s other (authentic) desires

26 Positive liberty Self-mastery 1. x, the real (individual or collective) self 2. y, irrational forces (inc. internal obstacles = all desires) 3. z, only what reason (or the state) commands Self-determination 1. x, an individual 2. y, inauthentic forces (inc. internal obstacles = some [inauthentic] desires) to 3. z, pursue one s other (authentic) desires

27 Positive liberty Self-mastery 1. x, the real (individual or collective) self 2. y, irrational forces (inc. internal obstacles = all desires) 3. z, only what reason (or the state) commands Self-determination 1. x, an individual 2. y, inauthentic forces (inc. internal obstacles = some [inauthentic] desires) to 3. z, pursue one s other (authentic) desires

28 Positive liberty Self-mastery 1. x, the real (individual or collective) self 2. y, irrational forces (inc. internal obstacles = all desires) 3. z, only what reason (or the state) commands Self-determination 1. x, an individual 2. y, inauthentic forces (inc. internal obstacles = some [inauthentic] desires) to 3. z, pursue one s other (authentic) desires

29 Positive liberty Self-mastery 1. x, the real (individual or collective) self 2. y, irrational forces (inc. internal obstacles = all desires) 3. z, only what reason (or the state) commands Self-determination 1. x, an individual 2. y, inauthentic forces (inc. internal obstacles = some [inauthentic] desires) to 3. z, pursue one s other (authentic) desires

30 Overview 1. Negative v. positive liberty 2. Positive liberty (I): ability 3. Positive liberty (II): self-mastery 4. Positive liberty (III.a): self-determination 5. Positive liberty (III.b): self-realisation 6. Criticisms 7. Summing-up

31 Bibliography Ø G. A. Cohen, Freedom and Money, in Cohen, On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, and Other Essays in Political Philosophy (Princeton, 2011) Ø Jeremy Waldron, Homelessness and the Issue of Freedom, U.C.L.A. Law Review 39 (1991) Ø Charles Taylor, What s Wrong with Negative Liberty?, in various, e.g. Miller (ed.), The Liberty Reader (Edinburgh, 2006) Ø Christopher Megone, One Concept of Liberty, Political Studies 35, 4 (1987), pp Ø Raymond Geuss, Freedom as an Ideal, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary vol. LXIX (1993), pp ; reprinted in Geuss, Outside Ethics (Princeton, 2005)

32 Summing-up What is positive liberty? Ø Self-mastery versus self-determination [versus self-realisation] Inability v. interference Ø Can poverty constrain freedom? Ø Can negative liberty recognise this? Internal v. external interference Ø Can (some? all?) desires constrain freedom?

33 Overview 1. Negative v. positive liberty 2. Positive liberty (I): ability 3. Positive liberty (II): self-mastery 4. Positive liberty (III.a): self-determination 5. Positive liberty (III.b): self-realisation 6. Criticisms 7. Summing-up