1. The Origins of liberty: Locke, Rousseau and Berlin
Idea of liberty
Bentham
An offer is not coercion unless it is a threat
Locke and toleration
What passes for Political power is often illegitimate coercion
Rights are derived and limited by duties
Liberalism
- Rule of law
- Individual righs
- Economic Freedom
- Rights of persons against the Gov
- Religious toleration
Property
Every man has 'property' in his own person
Nature are basis moral code. Nature was givien to ALL mankind, so how can we have 'property'?
Mixing our labour with Nature, creates property for us. Labour is the trigger
Private Prop is not a 'social convention' but a natural right
Protection of Property is a Gov's primary concern
Wealth is OK if no acquired with harm to others or taking precious resources and wasting
Natural Law
Agrees that all men are equal except onto God
Catholisicm is one step away from Monarchism
3 defficiencies of Nature
1. Limits of the known Law (Boundries?)
2. Nature lacks an impartial Judge
3. Power is needed to enforce Judgements
Locke's Goal
Build arg to justify expulsion of a ruler
Distinguish Paternal from Political power
2 Arguments Against
1. How to deal with Men's selfishness? Contradicts Nature
2. Did the state of nature ever really exist?
Filmer
God gave Adam auth over his family
Kings are like biological heads of families
No gov can allow full liberty to its subjects
Natural Law
1. Are part of Devine Law
2. Are knowable to Human reason
Government
Characteristics
1. Philosophical Foundation of power
2. Extent/limit of power
3. Purpose for which Government is created
Just Gov will always be limited in power
(Men join a political society to be better off)
People dont owe basic morality to Gov
Formed when
1. People leave state of Nature for political Society (Social Contract)
2. Those people agree how to be governed (Majority Rule)
Legitimate Power
1. Gov can't be arbitrary
2. Must have general and not individual laws
3. Gov cannot appropriate property without consent
4. Gov cannot delegate its power
Must be formed with consent of the people
Illegitimate Power
1. Obtained by conquest
2. Obtained by usurpers
...Revolt is natural
Revolution
Justified against tyranny
If Gov enacts unjust laws, it becomes an agreesor
Implicit Consent
If we benefit from Gov services, we implicitly abide by their law
If you surrender rights to the Gov, they must take you seriously
Citizens are founding parties to the Socila Contract
Willing subjects based on Trust
Punishment
Can be enacted only
1. To restrain (Public allowed to protect others)
2. For reperation (Private matter)
Feminism
- Women are party of the social contract by consent of their fathers
- Marriage gives husband rights over his wife by consent
- He supported divorce and compensation
Rouseau, the social contract
Hobbes
Man originally solitary and all human society was contractual"
"if there is no law, there is no injustice!"
Unfreedom is always diempowerment
Unfreedome occurs when an 'Agency' restricts you
Society
scientific advancement sped up moral corruption
led to economic shortages (Too many people - fewer resources)
Led to division of labour
led to conflict
Inequalities
natural (strength, intelligence)
artificial (conventions of society)
Freedom
Metaphysical
Anarchic
Personal
Made us aware of "Democratic" dimension
Negative concept - entails abscence of restriction
General Will
republic is the creation of will
"Men give up natural rights in return for civil rights"
TRUE LAW
Authority is freely granted by those whom it commands
Law helps those who break it get back on track
"Rules are made by people in their capacity as sovereign and obeyed by the same people in their capacity as subject"
People are stupid. need to be governed by their own will
Quotes
"Freedom was not the abscense of opposition, but the exercise of ruling oneself"
"Man can only truly be free if he makes the rules in which he lives"
Positive and Negative liberty
Who?
Locke
Hobbes
Adam Smith
Kant
Paternalism is the greatest depotism imaginable
Berlin
"without the pressure of social forces, political ideas might be stillborn"
Q: Obedience and Coercion / Why should i obey anyone?
"To coerce a man is to deprive him of his freedom"
"The liberty of some must depend on the restraint of others"
LIBERTY
Abscense of physical coercision
Freedom is the avoidance of obstacles
Pluralism
Making the world a more interesting place
Positive Liberty
- Actions by citizens in Government. Pro Action
- Always gives rise to "abuse of power"
Individuals have right to personal development
Be one's own master/Self Mastery
French revolution (Jacobins?) sought PL
QUESTION: "What or who is the source of control or interfernce that can determine someone to do, or be, this rather than that?"
<<Left Wing>>
Negative Liberty
<<Right Wing>>
Freedom from interference by other people.
Live life with as little intereference as possible
Critique: Enhanced by private property
Monarchy is epitome of NL/those of power to take away from the week
QUESTION: "What is the area within which the subject - a person or group of persons - is or should be left to do or be what he is able to do or be, without interference by other persons"
Learning Outcomes
explain in detail Locke’s theory of toleration and his idea of freedom
explain in detail Rousseau’s account of freedom and the general will
illustrate the distinction, as characterised by Berlin, between ‘positive’ and
‘negative’ freedom
discuss critically the importance of adequately characterising what liberty is,
for the purposes of political and moral discussion.
Plato
Will driven by passion is 'unfree' (Love is blind)
If the will allows itself reason, it is free
Freud
"The unconscious creats behaviour-once identified, we are liberated from them
All philisophers until Mill said that Freedom was Abscence from interference
If one is dependent on another, we are unequal. Equality + liberty are co dependent
Monarchy
Subjected to full discretion power over their selfves and lands, is not free
2. Liberty and Law: Mill and Raz
The 'Harm Principle' of Mill
How is a harm defined?
Doing in public what is legitimate in private?
When do we know 'Harm' has been created?
If it doesnt harm other, let it be
Harm ro oneself
OK
Society is < Not obliged> to look after someone - its a social choice
Mill
Positive needs
Interesting work
Challenges
Leisure
Freedom
"Freedom is an interpersonal concept"
"Freedom entails no interference by external agent"
"People should be left to blossom/personal freedom to be maximized"
Freedom for the selected view if benefits the many (Opposite of Marx)
Politics never looked at 'Private Life' as much as Mills
No moral constraints with yourself, but in how you deal with people
Historical reality
Political order was stabalized
1. Agricultural basis for communal life in the village
2. A common religious belief for all
3. Unchanged social/economic arrangemnts
Hobbes
2 levels of Authority
1. Citizens were equal, independent social and economic units (No old loyalties)
2. Sovereign has been awarded power by the people
What is not permitted is allowed
Wanted to restrict some freedom - Religion- as could lead to mischief
200 years before Mills
Paternalism
Deeply hostile towards
Our actions are only of value if not coerced
Social Contract
Citizens surrender auth to a sovereign
No other link between fellow citizens
Pyramid of power
Obedience is to the position of ruler, not man. Man can change if coercive
State
2 threats
1. Excesive Power of Gov (written laws)
2. Excessive power of public (unwritten laws)
"Tyranny of the majority"
Wanted less Gov involvement-where they do get involved, do so decisively
Bentham
Freedom is not a natural right, but practical - it generates social benefits
Freedom should not result in the harm of others
Freedom has limits if it hurts/disrupts others
Family views
Advocate for parent resp over children
Equality
Let the elite prosper.
i.e Canadian Medicare doesnt make sense for Mill
Strong advocate for "Competetive Varierty"
Perfection arrives naturally through self development
Highly influenced by Bentham who his father worked with
Raz on liberty
Raz on autonomy and ‘adequate’ options
Autonomy and the ‘harm’ principle
Autonomy and coercion
Autonomy and paternalism
Learning Outcomes
describe the Millian ‘harm principle’, using examples to illustrate its meaning
discuss critically the meaning of ‘harm’ that makes best sense of the
principle
describe in detail Raz’s theory of autonomy, including his idea of adequacy,
toleration, value-pluralism and the relevance of coerced choices
justify or condemn contemporary political decision-making in terms of its
impact on freedom
3. The Free market: Contract and Economic effeciency
Chicago school of Law and Economics
A Moral basis to the free market: Frieds theory of contract
Learning Outcomes
explain the main doctrines of the Chicago school of law and economics
explain, by giving examples, the Pareto criteria, the Coase theorem and the
Kaldor-Hicks criterion
comment critically on the relationship between moral judgments and
economic analysis
give an account of the ‘free market’
state what promising is and relate it to the idea of contract
consider critically whether the economic analysis of law is a viable way of
explaining and justifying legal decision-making.
4. Foundation of Community and Democracy
Atomism: Charles Taylor
Freedom resides in part in control of the 'common' life
An attack on the communitarians: Amy Gutman
Idea of liberal community: Dworkin
5. Liberalism and Democracy
Foundations of Democracy
Judicial review of legislation
6. Law and Gender
Three Femenist approaches
Dependency on their husbands was not freedome
Mill
Strong advocate. Liberalism must accept women rights
If Women were inferior, no need for rules to hold them back
Law benefited the wicked. he wanted law changed
3 views why Women should be free
1. Women are protesting, look around
2. Women were legally bound to their husband. doesnt mean they would protest if they could
3. If Women are happy, why have laws to restrain them/.