Modern Age - Winter 2016 - 66

MODERN AGE

WINTER 2016

This is Berlin's idea of negative liberty-the ability to actualize
one's desires without external hindrance. In essence this would
seem to be the dominant notion of freedom in the liberal tradition. For Jeremy Bentham, for example, freedom is merely the
space in which man can act without external restraint or coercion:
Liberty is neither more nor less than the absence of coercion. This
is the genuine, original, and proper sense of the word Liberty. The
idea of it is an idea purely negative. It is not anything produced
by positive Law. It exists without Law, and not by means of Law.6

In the pure form of liberalism it would seem then that the ideas
of liberty and law are inversely proportional. Liberty is the space
wherein action is unimpeded, while law imposes limits on freedom of action. Hence the more man's actions come under the
control of law, the less free he is.
The idea of freedom in classical Greek philosophy by contrast
is centered on an ideal of self-mastery.7 The freedom discussed
in classical philosophy is not the ability to actualize one's desires
whatever they might happen to be. Freedom is rational self-government-the ability to act according to one's rational judgment
without bondage either to external coercion to the compulsive
force exerted by irrational desires and passions. To illustrate the
contrast between classical Greek and modern understandings of
freedom it might be helpful to think of an alcoholic possessed
by a constant, burning desire to drink intemperately. Under what
circumstances is this alcoholic free? According to the negative
conception of freedom, the alcoholic is free if he is able to drink
alcohol as frequently as he wishes without external obstruction.
But according to the Greek philosophical tradition, the alcoholic
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Modern Age - Winter 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Winter 2016

Contents
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Cover1
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Cover2
Modern Age - Winter 2016 - Contents
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