Conceptions of liberty: an overview

In this video, Mat Humphrey, Professor of Political Theory at The University of Nottingham, introduces the classical distinction between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ liberty: the freedom to realise your own true potential (or some other higher goal) on the one hand, the freedom to be left alone to do as you please on the other. What does Freedom mean to you? Is it just a question of exercising personal preferences? Or do you feel that the political system in which you live can, or should, actively enable, promote or even force people to become free?

Suggested further reading: click here for a more detailed explanation of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ liberty.