Freedom

Personal freedom is an ideal of modern Western societies. Among those things that we want most for the citizens of our nations is freedom. What this amounts to, though, is difficult to pin down.

Negative Freedom

Negative conceptions of freedom suggest that freedom is to be defined in negative terms, in terms of what is not the case. Freedom, on this view, amounts to freedom from compulsion, coercion, and constraint. If we are not compelled or coerced to do what we do, and if there are a range of options open to us so that we are constrained in our choice, then we do what we do freely.

Positive Freedom

Positive conceptions of freedom, on the other hand, suggest that there is more to freedom than the absence of compulsion, coercion, and constraint. To have positive freedom, we must not only be free from these things, but must also the capacities and understanding to excercise autonomy.