THE IDEA OF FREEDOM
The focus of this module is the concept of political liberty. It explores each of the three
major traditions of theorising freedom: the ‘negative’ tradition (in which freedom is
understood as the absence of external obstacles), the ‘republican’ tradition (in which
freedom is understood as independence from dominating power), and the ‘positive’ tradition
(in which freedom is understood as the pursuit of a particular form of life), looking along the
way at key figures such as Hobbes, Bentham, Rousseau, Hegel and Marx. It also goes on to
consider broader political questions such as: What is the relation between freedom and
poverty? Does subjection to propaganda reduce freedom and, if so, how? Can processes of
enculturation and socialisation themselves be oppressive and undermining of freedom?
Preliminary Reading:
 Berlin, I. ‘Two concepts of liberty’, in his Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford University
Press, 1969).
Lectures: The lectures for this module will be held in **, on Fridays from 2-3pm in the
Spring Term. The lecturer is Dr. Michael Garnett (m.garnett@bbk.ac.uk).
Seminars: The seminars for this module will be held in **, on Fridays from 3-4pm in the
Spring Term. They will be led by the lecturer and by **.
Readings: Every week there is one key reading that is the focus of the seminar discussion.
One of the purposes of the seminar is to help you to understand the reading, so do not worry
if you have not fully understood the reading in advance. Nevertheless, it is essential that you
attempt the seminar reading each week if you are to follow the lecture and to participate in
the seminar discussion. In addition, there is ‘additional reading’ listed that will deepen your
understanding and help you to get the most out of the module. You are especially advised to
cover the additional reading for those topics on which you are planning to write.
Essays (BA): This module is assessed by one essay of around 3,000 words. It must be
written in response to one of the set questions listed below, except with permission from the
module convenor. For details concerning submission of the essay, including deadlines, see
the BA Handbook.
Prior to this assessed essay, you may also write up to two essays during the course, taken
from the titles below, and receive feedback on them from your seminar leader. These can be
useful practice for your eventual assessed essay. You should submit the first such essay by
the first seminar after reading week, and the second by one week after the last seminar of
term. [Notes: 1) You are always welcome to submit an essay earlier than these dates; 2) the
seminar leader should not be expected to comment on the same essay more than once.]
Essay (MA): This module is assessed by one essay of around 3,500 words. It must be
written in response to one of the set questions listed below, except with permission from the
module convenor. For details concerning submission of the essay, including deadlines, see
the MA Handbook.
Moodle: Electronic copies of course materials are available through Moodle, at
http://moodle.bbk.ac.uk. You will need your ITS login name and password to enter.
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Week 1: How Many Concepts of Freedom?
Seminar Reading:
 MacCallum, G. C. Jr. ‘Negative and positive freedom’, Philosophical Review 76
(1967). [Available online at www.jstor.org/stable/2183622.]
Additional Reading:
 Skinner, Q. ‘A third concept of liberty’, Proceedings of the British Academy 117
(2002).
 Nelson, E. ‘Liberty: One concept too many?’, Political Theory 33/1 (2005).
[Available online at www.jstor.org/stable/30038395.]
 Christman, J. ‘Saving positive freedom’, Political Theory 33/1 (2005). [Available
online at www.jstor.org/stable/30038396.]
Essay Question
o Is there an illuminating distinction to be drawn between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’
freedom? If so, what is it?
Week 2: Freedom in the ‘Negative’ Tradition
Seminar Reading:
 Hobbes, T. ‘Of the liberty of subjects’, Ch. 21 of his Leviathan (many editions,
1651). [Available online at www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm.]
Additional Reading:
 Skinner, Q. ‘Leviathan: liberty redefined’, Ch. 5 of his Hobbes and Republican
Liberty (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
 Constant, B. ‘The liberty of the ancients compared with that of the moderns’, in B.
Fontana, ed., Benjamin Constant: Political Writings (Cambridge University Press,
1988). [Available online at www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/conslibe.pdf.]
 Rosen, F. ‘Negative liberty’, Ch. 13 of his Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to
Mill (Routledge, 2003).
Week 3: ‘Negative’ Freedom Today
Seminar Reading:
 Steiner, H. ‘Individual liberty’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 75 (1974-5).
[Available online at www.jstor.org/stable/4544864.]
Additional Reading:
 Miller, D. ‘Constraints on freedom’, Ethics 94/1 (1983). [Available online at
www.jstor.org/stable/2380657.]
 Carter, I. ‘Individual freedom: constraints’, Ch. 8 of his A Measure of Freedom
(Oxford University Press, 1999). [Available via Birkbeck elibrary.]
 Garnett, M. ‘Ignorance, incompetence, and the concept of liberty’, Journal of
Political Philosophy 15/4 (2007). [Available at eprints.bbk.ac.uk/4258/2/4258.pdf].
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Essay Questions
o Is the absence of humanly imposed impediments to possible action sufficient for
political liberty?
o If freedom is just the absence of external impediments, how (if at all) do oppressive
laws reduce your freedom?
o What do we mean when we say that one person has more freedom than another? Is it
coherent and, if so, how?
Week 4: Freedom in the ‘Republican’ Tradition
Seminar Reading:
 Rousseau, J. On The Social Contract (many editions, 1762), Bk. I, Chs. 5-8 & Bk IV,
Ch. 2. [Available online at www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/roussoci.pdf.]
Additional Reading:
 Harrington, J. ‘The preliminaries, showing the principles of government’, §2 of his
The Commonwealth of Oceana (many editions, 1656). [Available online at
www.gutenberg.org/files/2801/2801-h/2801-h.htm.]
 Skinner, Q. ‘The neo-roman theory of free states’, Ch. 1 of his Liberty Before
Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
 Cohen, J. ‘The society of the general will’, Ch. 2 of his Rousseau: A free community
of equals (Oxford University Press, 2010). [Available via Birkbeck elibrary.]
Week 5: ‘Republican’ Freedom Today
Seminar Reading:
 Pettit, P. ‘Liberty as non-domination’, Ch. 2 of his Republicanism: A Theory of
Freedom and Government (Clarendon Press, 1997). [Available via Birkbeck
elibrary.]
Additional Reading:
 Kramer, M. ‘Liberty and domination’, in C. Laborde and J. Maynor, eds.,
Republicanism and Political Theory (Blackwell, 2008). [Available via Birkbeck
elibrary.]
 McMahon, C. ‘The indeterminacy of republican policy’, Philosophy and Public
Affairs 33/1 (2005). [Available online at www.jstor.org/stable/3557943.]
 Pettit, P. ‘The determinacy of republican policy: a reply to McMahon’, Philosophy
and
Public
Affairs
34/3
(2006).
[Available
online
at
www.jstor.org/stable/3876393.]
Essay Questions
o Is the ‘republican’ account of liberty both compelling and distinct from the ‘negative’
account?
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o Can non-domination serve as an independent value capable of guiding democratic
deliberations?
o Does the republican solve the problem of explaining how people can preserve their
freedom within a coercive political order?
READING WEEK
Week 6: Freedom in the ‘Positive’ Tradition
Seminar Reading:
 Wood, A. W. ‘Freedom’, Ch. 2 of his Hegel’s Ethical Thought (Cambridge
University Press, 1990).
Additional Reading:
 Korsgaard, C. M. ‘Morality as freedom’, Ch. 6 of her Creating the Kingdom of Ends
(Cambridge University Press, 1996).
 Patten, A. Hegel’s Idea of Freedom (Oxford University Press, 1999), Chs. 1—3.
[Available via Birkbeck elibrary.]
 Marx, K. On The Jewish Question (many editions, 1844), Part I. [Available online at
www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question.]
Week 7: ‘Positive’ Freedom Today
Seminar Reading:
 Taylor, C. ‘What's wrong with negative liberty’, in D. Miller, ed., Liberty (Oxford
University Press, 1991); also in A. Ryan, ed., The Idea of Freedom (Oxford
University Press, 1979).
Additional Reading:
 Berlin, I. ‘Two concepts of liberty’, in his Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford University
Press, 1969).
 Swift, A. ‘Liberty’, Part II of his Political Philosophy: A beginner’s guide for
students and politicians (Polity Press, 2001).
 Frankfurt, H. G. ‘Freedom of will and the concept of the person’, Journal of
Philosophy (1971) [www.jstor.org/stable/2024717].
Essay Questions:
o Are there any limits to what a truly free person can be motivated to do?
o Do ‘positive’ conceptions of liberty threaten to allow others ‘to ignore the actual
wishes of men or societies, to bully, oppress, torture them in the name, and on behalf,
of their “real’ selves”’ (Berlin)?
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o Critically assess Taylor’s claim that political liberty is best understood as an
‘exercise concept’.
Week 8: Freedom, Oppression and the Mind
Seminar Reading:
 Stoljar, N. ‘Autonomy and the feminist intuition’, Mackenzie, C. & Stoljar, N, eds.,
Relational Autonomy (Oxford University Press, 2000).
Additional Reading:
 Christman, J. ‘Liberalism and individual positive freedom’, Ethics 101 (1991), pp.
343-59. [Available online at www.jstor.org/stable/2381867.]
 Benson, P. ‘Autonomy and oppressive socialisation’, Social Theory and Practice 17
(1991), pp. 385-408.
 Meyers, D. T. ‘Feminism and women’s autonomy: the challenge of female genital
cutting’, Metaphilosophy 31/5 (2000).
Essay Questions
o Can a person be rendered unfree by her upbringing? If so, how?
o In what way, if any, would subjection to extensive government propaganda reduce
the freedom of the citizenry?
Week 9: Freedom, Ability and Economic Inequality
Seminar Reading:
 Daniels, N. ‘Equal liberty and unequal worth of liberty’, in his Reading Rawls
(Blackwell, 1975), pp. 253-81.
Additional Reading:
 Rawls, J. A Theory of Justice (Harvard University Press, 1999), §§32 & 39.
 Cohen, G. ‘Freedom and money’, Ch. 8 of his On the currency of egalitarian justice,
and other essays in political philosophy (Princeton University Press, 2011). [Also at
www.utdt.edu/Upload/_115634753114776100.pdf].
 Crocker, L. ‘Criticisms of positive liberty’, Ch. 6 of his Positive Liberty (Martinus
Nijhoff Publishers, 1980).
Essay Questions
o Is there any convincing account of political freedom according to which abject
poverty is not a source of unfreedom? If so, what is it?
o Is it consistent of Rawls to require an equal distribution of liberty but to permit an
unequal distribution of material resources?
Week 10: Capitalism, Coercion and the Wage Relation
Seminar Reading:
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
Wertheimer, A. Coercion (Princeton University Press, 1987), Chs. 12, 13 & 14.
Additional Reading:
 Nozick, R. Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Blackwell, 1974) Ch. 8, especially pp. 262–
65.
 Cohen, G. A. ‘The structure of proletarian unfreedom’, Philosophy & Public Affairs
12/1 (1983). [Available online at www.jstor.org/stable/2265026.]
 Olsaretti, S. Liberty, Desert and the Market (Cambridge University Press, 2004) Chs.
5 & 6.
Essay Questions
o Under capitalism, are propertyless workers forced to sell their labour?
o Can coercion be analysed simply in terms of the quality of options available to the
coerced?
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