Tom Palmer on positive and negative liberty

by on March 22, 2007 at 8:14 pm in Philosophy | Permalink

He is responding to my Cato podcast, see also Will Wilkinson's post... 

My view, simply put, is that "Libertarian Liberty" (to be specific with the terminology) is for the most
part an instrumental value subordinate to the enhancement of positive
capabilities.  When the two conflict, I opt for the capabilities, and
in that sense I admire the philosophical premises of many contemporary
American liberals.  I also believe in a governmental safety net, unlike many of the people at Cato, and partly for this reason.

On the other hand, I favor zero taxation of capital income, deregulation of the medical sector, cuts in government spending, no special privileges for labor unions, and I reject the philosophy of egalitarianism.  So I’m not quite ready to be writing for The American Prospect and competing down the wages of Matt and Ezra.

The Garbageman March 23, 2007 at 12:52 am

Tyler,

Do you think that positive liberty is lexically prior to negative liberty? Does positive liberty always win in a fight?

An interesting question: What set of negative liberties maximize positive liberty? An interesting project for libertarian philosophers and economists would be to show that a rather expansize set of negative liberties maximizes positive liberty.

The best world to live in would be one where you could have both at once.

Here’s another problem: Put negative liberty on one axis and positive liberty on another. Assume some crude trade-off rate between the two. Find the maximum on the curve. What institutions produce the maximum?

Could there be a trade-off rate? What would that be? What’s a reasonable trade-off rule? How can you quantify either kind of liberty?

cosme March 23, 2007 at 7:10 am

there is only one kind of liberty, the liberty of tao, that is to flow without interfering with the way of nature. the libertarians don’t like liberty. what they like is vanity, money, control and power.

Noumenon March 23, 2007 at 9:29 am

An “instrumental” value is one you only value for how useful it is, not for its innate awesomeness. Like the difference between a priest who values religion for itself, and a monarch who values religion for keeping his people in line. The rest is saying he’d rather have the freedom to fly than the freedom to not have the airlines tell him when he can board.

Pablo Stafforini March 23, 2007 at 11:02 am

Robert,

I can’t believe people can write such gobbledygook and think other people will understand or be impressed by it. What does such a piece of blather mean?

Try listening to the first few minutes of the podcast that is the subject of this post. Tyler has even provided you with a link to the relevant audio file, which you’ll find just by clicking on the word ‘responding’ above.

Kent Guida March 23, 2007 at 5:03 pm

Tom Palmer nails it. Positive liberty means the choices enabled by wealth, and growth in wealth has been simply dazzling.

But Tocqueville posed the question in 1840: will people in the age of democracy maintain freedom (a choice that entails a great deal of effort with no immediate dividend) or give in to the democratic despotism that substitutes the satisfactions of wealth for “the trouble of living and breathing.”
Tyler’s answer seems to be, the people have chosen wealth or positive liberty, and there is no reason to think they will change their minds.

This is not a recent phenomenon — the people have pretty much been making this same choice at every step since Tocqueville wrote. In fact, Tocqueville goes back a century and says the French went that way long before their revolution.

What Tocqueville considered an open question and a challenge for the age of democracy is no longer open.

A melancholy prospect, no?

zlguocius March 24, 2007 at 2:21 pm

@ liberty:

What do you mean by ‘inalienable’? Is an inalienable right one that its bearer is not allowed to waive, no matter what?

If so, doesn’t the inalienability of a right conflict with (negative) liberty? For example, if the right to life is inalienable, that means I am not at liberty to commit suicide, right?

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dhvc November 13, 2007 at 4:46 am
数据恢复 November 22, 2007 at 12:21 am

森

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kareishuu May 4, 2009 at 6:31 pm
likaida May 8, 2009 at 4:35 am
atoz July 10, 2009 at 7:13 am
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Starbucks, IHOP, and Cinnabon are just a few of the spots trying to ease the pain for taxpayers on Thursday.

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