Liberty

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Liberty means the right to do what is worth doing and worth enjoying in common with others. It does not mean doing anything at all. In society, liberty always exists along with restraints that make li…

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Natural liberty means complete freedom to do whatever one wants, without restraint. It is called a condition of license and cannot work in human society. True liberty lives within restraints and rules…

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Hobbes uses 'license' for unrestricted freedom, or a condition to do what one likes in the state of nature. It is not the proper meaning of liberty in a civil society.

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Social life has rules, norms, and duties. These limits separate right from wrong, good from bad, and legal from illegal. Liberty becomes meaningful only when it works within these social limits.

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Liberty has two dimensions: negative and positive. The negative view stresses minimum restraint, while the positive view stresses reasonable restraint for public good and personal development.

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The negative view says restraint is an evil and should be kept as low as possible. Liberty increases when state interference is minimal. John Stuart Mill is a major defender of this view.

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Mill argued that all restraints as restraints are evil and that leaving people to themselves is better than controlling them. He supported maximum freedom with minimum interference.

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Mill divided human actions into self-regarding and others-regarding actions. Self-regarding actions affect only the person concerned, while others-regarding actions affect other people and may justify…