The Psychological Dangers of Positive Liberty: Reconstructing a Neglected Undercurrent in Isaiah Berlin's “Two Concepts of Liberty”

2014 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Gustavsson
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Predictable Pattern ◽  
Positive Liberty ◽  
Contemporary Liberalism

AbstractBerlin is often taken to have exaggerated his case against positive liberty, since contrary to what he seems to argue, several versions of it do not logically justify coercion. A more historical interpretation of his warnings may save him from this accusation, yet on the other hand suggests his message is of little relevance for contemporary liberalism. In contrast to both these approaches, this essay considers a third and largely neglected aspect of “Two Concepts of Liberty,” that speaks more directly to the challenges facing liberalism today: Berlin's warning that positive liberty invites the specific kind of coercion that parades as liberation, and that it does so according to a psychologically predictable pattern. After reconstructing this undercurrent in Berlin's critique of positive liberty, this essay also considers the relevance of Berlin's warnings to contemporary European debates on banning the Muslim veil in the name of liberation.

scholarly journals Another Name for Liberty: Revelation, ‘Objectivity,’ and Intellectual Freedom in Barth and Marion

Open Theology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 430-450
Author(s):  
Kristóf Oltvai
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Intellectual Freedom ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Absolute Truth ◽  
Saturated Phenomenon ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Karl Barth’s and Jean-Luc Marion’s theories of revelation, though prominent and popular, are often criticized by both theologians and philosophers for effacing the human subject’s epistemic integrity. I argue here that, in fact, both Barth and Marion appeal to revelation in an attempt to respond to a tendency within philosophy to coerce thought. Philosophy, when it claims to be able to access a universal, absolute truth within history, degenerates into ideology. By making conceptually possible some ‚evental’ phenomena that always evade a priori epistemic conditions, Barth’s and Marion’s theories of revelation relativize all philosophical knowledge, rendering any ideological claim to absolute truth impossible. The difference between their two theories, then, lies in how they understand the relationship between philosophy and theology. For Barth, philosophy’s attempts to make itself absolute is a produce of sinful human vanity; its corrective is thus an authentic revealed theology, which Barth articulates in Christian, dogmatic terms. Marion, on the other hand, equipped with Heidegger’s critique of ontotheology, highlights one specific kind of philosophizing—metaphysics—as generative of ideology. To counter metaphysics, Marion draws heavily on Barth’s account of revelation but secularizes it, reinterpreting the ‚event’ as the saturated phenomenon. Revelation’s unpredictability is thus preserved within Marion’s philosophy, but is no longer restricted to the appearing of God. Both understandings of revelation achieve the same epistemological result, however. Reality can never be rendered transparent to thought; within history, all truth is provisional. A concept of revelation drawn originally from Christian theology thus, counterintuitively, is what secures philosophy’s right to challenge and critique the pre-given, a hermeneutic freedom I suggest is the meaning of sola scriptura.

Education for potentiality (against instrumentality)

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 878-891
Author(s):  
Tyson E Lewis
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Means And Ends ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Current Challenge ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

In this article, the author problematizes two well-known positions on the relationship between means and ends in education. On the one side, there are those who problematize the means of education without necessarily redefining its ends, and on the other hand, there are those who challenge the purported ends of education while maintaining certain means. These two positions can take any number of progressive and conservative forms. While there are virtues to these projects, this article argues that both take for granted an underlying sense of education as a means to an end, and thus lend themselves to some version of instrumentality. Proposing a radically different formulation, this article turns to Giorgio Agamben and his notions of the impotential act, pure means, and use. The author suggests that the current challenge to think education beyond instrumentality ought to conceptualize education not as a means to an end or an end in itself but as a pure means. The article then offers three versions of education as a pure means: allowing, preferring not to, and contemplating. Each of these examples proposes a specific kind of inoperative, non-instrumental form of educational life for teachers and studiers, respectively.

Freedom as a Skill

1983 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 197-215
Author(s):  
K. R. Minogue
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Positive Liberty ◽  
The Will

The word ‘freedom’ leads a double life. As a rallying cry in the mouths of politicians and publicists, it features in speech acts which inspire men to brave endeavours. Freedom or death are the proffered alternatives, and they are generally linked with fatiguing dispositions such as vigilance. As a philosophical concept, on the other hand, freedom is a territory in which battles are fought about such issues as positivity and negativity, virtue, determinism and the character of the will. There is remarkably little connection between these two lives. Philosophers do not seem to take much interest in courage, and politicians do not tarry to specify whether it is negative or positive liberty they are talking about.

Freedom as a Skill

1983 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 197-215
Author(s):  
K. R. Minogue
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Positive Liberty ◽  
The Will

The word ‘freedom’ leads a double life. As a rallying cry in the mouths of politicians and publicists, it features in speech acts which inspire men to brave endeavours. Freedom or death are the proffered alternatives, and they are generally linked with fatiguing dispositions such as vigilance. As a philosophical concept, on the other hand, freedom is a territory in which battles are fought about such issues as positivity and negativity, virtue, determinism and the character of the will. There is remarkably little connection between these two lives. Philosophers do not seem to take much interest in courage, and politicians do not tarry to specify whether it is negative or positive liberty they are talking about.

Kinship Organization. A Study of Terminology

Africa ◽  
1932 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kirchhoff
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Formal Aspect ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Native Culture ◽  
Functional Studies ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Kinship Structure

The study of kinship is by now recognized as being one of the key positions in the study of primitive culture. The series of studies to be undertaken by the Institute of the effect upon native culture of modern industrialization will to a great extent centre on the problem of changes in kinship structure, and the changing function of the different types of kinship organization. With this final aim in mind, the following sketch purposely pays attention to the formal aspect only of kinship organization. It goes without saying that such merely formal studies can never be an end in themselves. But there is, on the other hand, always the danger that in historical or functional studies of kinship problems this formal aspect may be unduly neglected. This consideration—that a clear understanding of these formal problems has to precede any attempt at a functional or historical interpretation—is the only reason why these forms of kinship organization as such have been singled out here for theoretical discussion. This discussion does not aim at presenting anything new to the student of kinship organization. It simply attempts to sum up in a form as concise as possible the main results—and the main problems—of modern anthropology in regard to the forms of kinship organization. This can probably best be done by giving definitions of the most important of these forms and discussing their relation to each other.

Positive Liberty, 1880–1914

1962 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Nicholls
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
First Case ◽  
Positive Liberty ◽  
State Interference

It would not, I think, be entirely misleading to suggest that doctrines of laissez faire and attacks upon reasoned state intervention in political and social life have tended to emanate from two extremes in social philosophy—ultra individualism and an extreme organicism. In the first case, and we may take Locke as an example, society is made up of a heap of individuals who came together to form the state for the limited purpose of the protection of property. Man is not seen as a part of a larger whole, influenced by the structure of that whole, but as an isolated individual; thus any state interference beyond the protection of property is viewed as a restriction of individual liberty. On the other hand are thinkers who regard society as such a complicated and delicate organism that they can only—and governments should only—sit back and gasp at the complexity of it all. Any attempt to improve one aspect will affect the balance of the whole in ways impossible to predict. It is difficult to point to a pure instance of this opinion, but this is the impression left with the reader after perusing such works as Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Bradley's Ethical Studies and the works of some more modern conservatives. All that governments can be expected to do is to prevent the worst collisions and any attempt to pursue a positive policy is doomed to failure.

scholarly journals Nollywood, Religion and Development in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Prisca A Gobo
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
The Other ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Many ◽  
Nigerian Film

The Nigerian film industry, popularly called Nollywood has been a source of pride since it officially took off in 1992 with the production of the first direct-to-video film, Living in Bondage. Religion, on the other hand, has become a topic of growing interest among scholars worldwide. However, in Nigeria, while Nollywood is peddling exaggerated stereotypes and one-sided accounts of its traditional religion and culture, thereby promoting the get rich quick life, many religious leaders intensify that same way of life by making the members believe that one can go to bed a pauper and wake up wealthy just by praying and sowing seeds. This article sought to interrogate the effects and consequences of Nollywood and Religion on Nigerian development. This article examined the neo-colonial mindset that makes Nollywood writers, producers and religious leaders magnify the ills in our society while glorifying the western life. Indeed, religion and Nollywood with the many followers, listeners and viewers can influence Nigeria and the diaspora positively in more ways than one. Through the multidisciplinary approach to historical interpretation, this article identified ways to regulate and promote development in Nigeria through religion and Nollywood.

Some Syntactic Aspects of the Verse Structure in the Targum Onqelos

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmytro Tsolin
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Sequential Approach ◽  
Biblical Poetry ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Verse Structure

Targum Onqelos adopts a sequential approach to rendering of biblical poetry: even the passages that have been completely paraphrased imitate the parallelism membrorum structure, and supplementary words and clauses are well-fitted into the parallel verse scheme. Only a small number of passages may be defined as quasi-poetical forms which combine poetry with prosaic elements. On the other hand, the targumic parallel verse structure differs from its biblical counterpart in some syntactic details. This type of modified verse structure is inherent in the targums only, and may be considered as a specific kind of poetry in Aramaic.

Liberty and Education: John Stuart Mill's Dilemma

Philosophy ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 40 (152) ◽  
pp. 129-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. G. West
Keyword(s):  
Conscious State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Positive Sense ◽  
Positive Liberty ◽  
Negative Sense

The Term ‘liberty’ invokes such universal respect that most modern political economists and moralists endeavour to find a conspicuous place for it somewhere in their systems or prescriptions. But in view of the innumerable senses of this term an insistence on some kind of definition prior to any discussion seems to be justified. For our present purposes attention to two particularly conflicting interpretations will be sufficient. These are sometimes called the ‘negative’ and the ‘positive’ notions of Liberty. According to the ‘negative’ notion, my own liberty implies the reduction to a minimum of the deliberate interference of other human beings within the area in which I wish to act. Conversely the absence of liberty, or coercion, is regarded as undesirable because it amounts to the prevention by other persons of my doing what I want. On the other hand, the ‘positive’ sense of the word ‘liberty’ consists in the attainment of self-mastery, or, in other words, the release from the domination of ‘adverse’ influences. This ‘slavery’ from which men ‘liberate’ themselves is variously described to include slavery to ‘nature’, to ‘unbridled passions’, to ‘irrational impulses’, or simply slavery to one's ‘lower nature’. ‘Positive’ liberty is then identified with ‘self-realisation’ or an awakening into a conscious state of rationality. The fact that it is contended that such a state can often be attained only by the interference of other ‘rational’ persons who ‘liberate’ their fellow beings from their ‘irrationality’, brings this interpretation of liberty into open and striking conflict with liberty in the ‘negative’ sense.

scholarly journals The institution of urbarars in mediaeval Serbia

Bastina ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 263-279
Author(s):  
Andreja Katančević
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Mining Law ◽  
Mining Laws ◽  
The One

Urbarars are an institution of Saxon customary law, which was present in mediaeval mining laws of Bohemia and Serbia. The aim of this paper is to compare Serbian and Bohemian mediaeval solutions and to discover whether and to what degree urbarars were an original development within the Serbian mediaeval state. The results show that the two institutions are similar with regard to their judicial competence and the task of keeping registries of legal titles. The differences are more numerous. Bohemian urbarars were at the same time contractors for regal incomes, which leads to further differences. Serbian urbarars had smaller competences and, according to the sources, did not collect the urbor. Their jurisdiction was much narrower, confined to mining disputes of lower value. They survey the mining field and keep records about concessions and mining partnerships, which, in Bohemia, was the task of special notaries and not urbarars. The urbarars of Novo Brdo received compensation for their services in the form of fees for surveys and registration of legal titles, as well as fines for delicts, while Bohemian urbarars received a part of the collected regal income. Taking everything into account, it can be cautiously concluded that Bohemian solutions were closer to Saxon customs. On the one hand, Bohemian legal sources are at least a century older than the Serbian sources, on the other hand, Saxons in Serbia were few and were quickly assimilated, whereas Germans remained a significant community in Bohemia well into the XX century, which means that they could preserve their customs, as well as legal customs, more easily. This confirms the authenticity of a good part of norms of Serbian mining law, i.e. that from XIII to XV century it experienced a sui generis development in Serbia. It was then received in the Ottoman Empire and survived the state which created it by several centuries. The applied methods are linguistic, systemic and historical interpretation of the sources, as well as the comparative and historical method.

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