Charles Taylor

What is wrong with negative liberty

Negative liberty

Freedom from interference. Nobody blocks you, nobody coerces you, nobody tells you what to do. Taylor thinks this idea is too thin.

Taylors main critique

whether people are actually capable of acting freely. you can be “uninterfered-with” and still deeply unfree. Examples: addiction, lack of education, poverty.

Thin vs. thick freedom

thin: only cares about external obstacle. thick: looks at internal obstacles and structural obstacles.

higher and lower desires

humans have conflicting desires. some desires reflect who we truly want to be (more authentic), and some undermine us (compulsive, socially imposed)

why this matters

poltics cannot be neutral about what counts as freedom. education, social support, economic stability. they are not extras. they are preconditions for meaningful freedom. the

the bottom line.

negative liberty is too individualistic, too narrow, and too blind to real-world constraints, real freedom has to account for: internal capacities, social conditions, the difference between genuine agency and coercion.