We are not free merely because there happens to be no restraint on our actions. True freedom means we aren’t subject to the arbitrary will of one person or institution
Columnist based in Hamburg
Jokes, poems and social media posts that trigger outrage among certain sections of society dominate the news and have fuelled debate about the freedom of speech and its limits. Rarely, however, do we reflect on what freedom actually implies. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if our main concern is to secure the freedom of endless consumer choice.
As far as civil liberty is concerned, we usually think in terms of an absence of restraint. We are free to act in any way we like so long as a state or govt does not interfere in our activity. A view of liberty defined purely as an absence of restrictions is far too narrow in scope, as Quentin Skinner, the most important living scholar of intellectual history, argues. Even in autocratic regimes, individual freedoms might well flourish. What is decisive is not whether we are free to act, but whether we are subject to the arbitrary will of any person or institution that might grant or impede our action as they see fit. Liberty is a status, not merely a matter of restrictions on how we act or what we say.
Jokes, poems and social media posts that trigger outrage among certain sections of society dominate the news and have fuelled debate about the freedom of speech and its limits. Rarely, however, do we reflect on what freedom actually implies. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if our main concern is to secure the freedom of endless consumer choice.
As far as civil liberty is concerned, we usually think in terms of an absence of restraint. We are free to act in any way we like so long as a state or govt does not interfere in our activity. A view of liberty defined purely as an absence of restrictions is far too narrow in scope, as Quentin Skinner, the most important living scholar of intellectual history, argues. Even in autocratic regimes, individual freedoms might well flourish. What is decisive is not whether we are free to act, but whether we are subject to the arbitrary will of any person or institution that might grant or impede our action as they see fit. Liberty is a status, not merely a matter of restrictions on how we act or what we say.