Negative and Positive Freedom

TLDR

The debate over positive versus negative freedom, and the unclear criteria for identifying the persons whose freedom is at stake, underpins the broader discussion of free‑will and conceptual differences in accounts of freedom. The authors find that the claim of freedom as a triadic relation lacks sufficient support, while the flexible interpretation of freedom increases its perceived value for polemicists.

Abstract

The distinction between positive and negative freedom has, however, stood in the way of an approach. It has encouraged us to see differences in accounts of freedom as resulting from differences in concepts of freedom. The claim that freedom, subject to the restriction noted above, is a triadic relation can hardly be substantiated here by exhaustive examination of the idioms of freedom. The resulting flexibility of the notion of freedom, and the resulting enhancement of the value of freedom, has suited the purposes of the polemicist. The intelligibility of the free-will problem is generally and correctly thought to rest at least upon the problem's being concerned with the freedom of persons, even though the criteria for identification of the persons or 'selves' whose freedom is in question have not often been made sufficiently clear. The claim that freedom, subject to the restriction noted, is a triadic relation can hardly be substantiated here by exhaustive examination of the idioms of freedom.