Challenging Isaiah Berlin's distinction between negative and positive freedom

Abstract

Isaiah Berlin is one of the key figures who has dominated the field of social freedom with his distinction between negative and positive conceptions of freedom. In this dissertation, I have argued that analyzing freedom in terms of various components of freedom would be able to provide a better framework than Berlin's categorization which places diverse theories of freedom into two pigeonholes. First, I have offered four components of freedom, which are the interpersonal, institutional, mental dispositional, and exercise components. After evaluating these components, I compared different theories of freedom with respect to these components. Then, I have answered Berlin's charge against positive freedom that it paves the way for totalitarianism, by defending a minimal account of positive freedom. Lastly, I have argued that we can force people into freedom in some limited cases. So, being forced to be free is not necessarily paradoxical.