Saturday, July 16, 2016

Brad DeLong — Must-Read: Quentin Skinner: Liberty Before Liberalism and All That


The Roman conception of the free state, assumed later by Marx, is contrasted with the liberal conception of freedom based on Hobbes's adoption of the scientific/engineering meaning of freedom as freedom of motion (action).

WCEG — The Equitablog
Must-Read: Quentin Skinner: Liberty Before Liberalism and All That
Brad DeLong

John Locke is considered to be the "father" of English liberalism. His view of freedom is freedom of action rather than legal status.
T]he Idea of Liberty, is the Idea of a Power in any Agent to do or forbear any Action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, whereby either of them is preferr’d to the other. (E1-4 II.xxi.8: 237) — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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