POSITIVE FREEDOM

What did T. H. Green believe about the unrestrained pursuit of profit?

The unrestrained pursuit of profit, as advocared by classical liberalism, had given rise to new forms of poverty and injustice; the economic liberty of the few had blighted the life chances of the many.

How do individuals see one another according to Green?

Individuals have sympathy for one another; their egoism is therefore constrained by some degree of altruism.

What is altruism?

A concern for the interests and welfare of others, based on either enlightened self-interest or on a belief in a common humanity.

What responsibilities do individuals have according to modern liberals?

The individual possesses social responsibilities and not merely individual responsibilities, and is therefore linked to other individuals by ties od caring and empathy.

Why did Green challenge the classical liberal notion of freedom?

Negative freedom merely removes external constraints on the indiviudal, giving the individual freedom of choice; in the case of businesses that wish to maximise profits, negative freedom justifies their ability to hire the cheapest labour possible.

• e.g. employ children rather than adults.

What can economic freedom lead to?

Can lead to exploitation, even becoming the ‘freedom to starve’ - freedom of choice in the marketplace is therefore an inadequate conception of individual freedom.

What is a positive theory of freedom?

Freedom is the ability of the individual to develop and attain individuality; it involves people’s ability to realise their individual potential, attain skills and knowledge and achieve fulfilment.

What is the difference between positive and negative freedom?

Negative freedom acknowledges only legal and physical constraints on liberty, positive freedom recognises that libery may also be threatened by social disadvantage and inequality.

What state does a view a positive freedom support?

By protecting indivudals from the social evils that cripple their lives, the state can expand freedom, and not merely diminish it; liberals therefore endorsed an enabling state, exercising an increasingly wide range of social and economic responsibilities.

What classical liberal beliefs do modern liberals support about the state?

It does not place socirty before the indiviudal; freedom ultimately consists of individuals acting morally, but state cannot force people to be good - it can only provide the conditions in which they are able to make more responsible moral decisions.

What do classical and modern liberals agree on about the individual?

Modern liberals share the preference for self-reliant individuals who take responsibility for their own lives; the essential difference is the recognition that this can only occur if social differences allow it to happen - a desire to help individuals to help themselves.