Positive liberty means acting on one’s second-order desires through self-mastery.
Evidence
The second, ‘positive’ conception of liberty is not quite so easy to define. Roughly speaking, a person or group is free in the positive sense to the extent that they exercise self-control or self-mastery. It is not agreed, however, what exactly constitutes self-mastery in the relevant sense. According to one influential account, to be free in the positive sense is to be able to act on one’s second-order desires (Frankfurt 1971 ). For example, the addicted gambler may be free in the negative sense not to gamble—since no one actually forces him to do so—, but he is not free in the positive sense unless he actually succeeds in acting on his presumed second-order desire not to desire gambling. — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 8
Categorization
- DEFINE: Illuminates the positive conception via Frankfurt’s hierarchical desire account, with the gambler illustration.
- XREF: The gambler example draws on Harry Frankfurt’s hierarchy-of-desires framework. — connects to: Positive liberty means cultivating the self through ethical formation — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 298; Positive freedom means self-mastery, negative freedom means absence of restraint; Negative liberty means being free from interference in one’s choices. — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 7 (+4 more)
- corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 8
Related
- Freedom is conceived either as absence of interference or as self-mastery (similarity 0.85)
- Negative liberty means being free from interference in one’s choices. (similarity 0.82)
- Freedom can be reconceived as non-domination rather than non-interference or self-mastery (similarity 0.81)
- Republican freedom as non-domination fuses absence from negative and mastery from positive liberty. (similarity 0.78)
- Positive liberty means cultivating the self through ethical formation (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Positive freedom means self-mastery, negative freedom means absence of restraint
#corroborates(0.90) - Positive liberty means cultivating the self through ethical formation
#expands(0.85) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 298 - Taylor defines freedom as critical self-reflection, not merely acting as one wants
#corroborates(0.80) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1035 - Freedom is proactive self-influence, not merely the absence of coercion.
#corroborates(0.80) - Negative liberty means being free from interference in one’s choices.
#complicates(0.75) — Frank Lovett, Republicanism, 7 - Freedom requires choosing one’s own essence, not merely one’s acts
#corroborates(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1126 - A liberty that stays only an attitude becomes self-imprisoning mimicry, not freedom.
#corroborates(0.70) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 493