Difference between revisions of "What Is Liberty?"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
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* [[Jason Brennan]], in ''[[Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know]]'', arbitrarily selects one of the many definitions of "positive" and "negative" liberty, which he defines simplistically in terms of "power to do what one chooses" and "absence of obstacles". (p.26) | * [[Jason Brennan]], in ''[[Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know]]'', arbitrarily selects one of the many definitions of "positive" and "negative" liberty, which he defines simplistically in terms of "power to do what one chooses" and "absence of obstacles". (p.26) | ||
* [[David Schmidtz]] and [[Jason Brennan]], in ''[[A Brief History of Liberty]]'', write "Here we categorize forms of liberty as much as our present purpose requires. We don't assume that there is any essence awaiiting our discovery; neither do we assume otherwise." They gloss over [[Gerald MacCallum]]'s [[Freedom as a Triadic Relation]] in a footnote, despite the fact the he unifies liberty with a model and dismisses the positive and negative distinctions the authors prefer. There is no mention of [[Hohfeld’s typology of rights]], and thus they conflate power, rights and liberty. | * [[David Schmidtz]] and [[Jason Brennan]], in ''[[A Brief History of Liberty]]'', write "Here we categorize forms of liberty as much as our present purpose requires. We don't assume that there is any essence awaiiting our discovery; neither do we assume otherwise." They gloss over [[Gerald MacCallum]]'s [[Freedom as a Triadic Relation]] in a footnote, despite the fact the he unifies liberty with a model and dismisses the positive and negative distinctions the authors prefer. There is no mention of [[Hohfeld’s typology of rights]], and thus they conflate power, rights and liberty. | ||
| − | This absence of satisfactory definitions of liberty or freedom is typical of libertarian literature. | + | This absence of satisfactory definitions of liberty or freedom is typical of libertarian literature. The most libertarians seem to do is to arbitrarily declare that negative liberty is the only true liberty: but that does not explain other people's conceptions. |
== Liberty as a glittering generality of propaganda. == | == Liberty as a glittering generality of propaganda. == | ||
