Social Freedom
Subtitle: The Responsibility View
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: June 13, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9780521560924
Subjects: Social & political philosophy; Sociological Theory; Choice (Psychology); Philosophy; Sociology; General; Philosophy / General; Philosophy-General; Social Science / General; Authority; Liberty; Social values
First sentence: This book aims to expound and defend a certain view of social freedom which I shall call the responsibility view.
Description: When is it correct to say that a person's freedom is restricted? Can poverty constrain freedom? Can you constrain your own freedom, for instance through weakness of the will or self-deception, and are you not truly free unless you act on a rational choice? Kristjan Kristjansson offers a critical analysis of the main components of a theory of negative liberty: the nature of obstacles and constraints, the weight of obstacles, and the relation of freedom to power and autonomy.

Through this discussion, which examines much of the contemporary work on political freedom, he develops his own theory of negative liberty, the so-called 'responsibility view', which meets many of the goals of advocates of positive liberty while retaining its distinctive 'negative' nature. He also argues for, and implements, a method of naturalistic revision as a way of solving conceptual disputes in social philosophy.