Name: The Essence of Freedom
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 9 min 1 s
Description: Learn what freedom means through history, philosophy, and personal stories, making it relatable to your own life and experiences.

Question

What is the difference between the negative and positive conception of liberty?

Accepted Answer

According to political theories, Negative liberty is a freedom as an absence of external constraints. Whereas the second dimension of freedom, ‘expansion of opportunity’, is referred as Positive Liberty.

The negative liberty implies the absence of restraints and rights to do whatever one likes. However, positive liberty is dependent on society in which adequate facilities are available for each and every section of society to enjoy desirable rights.

The bigger the boundaries of negative liberty in an individual, the more will be the freedom. Similarly, the broader the areas of positive liberty in a society, the development of individual will be greater.

Hence, negative liberty is the removal of hindrances within us and positive liberty is the removal of hindrances from the society.

What is the difference between the negative and positive conception of liberty?

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