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76-451: Freiheit is the German word for both liberty and political freedom . Freiheit may also refer to: Liberty Sometimes liberty is differentiated from freedom by using the word "freedom" primarily, if not exclusively, to mean the ability to do as one wills and what one has the power to do; and using the word "liberty" to mean the absence of arbitrary restraints, taking into account

152-614: A negative sense, liberty is "the revolt of the individual against all divine, collective, and individual authority." "This also is remarkable in India , that all Indians are free, and no Indian at all is a slave. In this the Indians agree with the Lacedaemonians . Yet the Lacedaemonians have Helots for slaves, who perform the duties of slaves; but the Indians have no slaves at all, much less

228-529: A foreign empire. As a Macedonian and tutor to Alexander the Great, Aristotle was well-placed to be in the good graces of the political leadership of his time, until Athens challenged Macedonian power towards the end of Aristotle's life, and he went into exile from Athens to avoid the possibility of being attacked by anti-Macedonian Athenians. Aristotle's Politics is divided into eight books, which are each further divided into chapters. Citations of this work, as with

304-444: A given social system. Freedom thus requires both the material economic conditions that make freedom possible alongside social relationships and institutions conducive to freedom. The socialist conception of freedom is closely related to the socialist view of creativity and individuality. Influenced by Karl Marx 's concept of alienated labor, socialists understand freedom to be the ability for an individual to engage in creative work in

380-405: A household or village are only different in size, but rule over slaves was a different kind of rule. He then examines in what way the city may be said to be natural . He concludes that "the state is a creation of nature" : [W]hile the state came about as a means of securing life itself, it continues in being to secure the good life.… This association is the end of those others [the household and

456-417: A new state. He then turns to the question of how the virtues of a person qua person line up with the virtues of a person qua citizen: where they are coincident and where they may differ. Next, Aristotle classifies varieties of constitution , in their good and bad forms (in good ones, the rulers rule in the interest of the common good ; in bad ones, for the benefit of the rulers themselves). "The state

532-401: A polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed. According to compatibilist Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679): a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he hath

608-410: A relationship between individuals, rather than families, came to the fore, and with it the increasing focus on individual liberty as a fundamental reality, given by " Nature and Nature's God ," which, in the ideal state , would be as universal as possible. In On Liberty , John Stuart Mill sought to define the "...nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over

684-515: A relaxing of property requirements to be considered a qualified oligarch) can also gradually transform an oligarchy into something more resembling a democracy. Aristocracies and polities most often fall when they economically exploit and unjustly mistreat the lower classes. As in oligarchies, demagogues will exploit this to agitate the lower classes and peel them away their loyalty to the constitutional order. Polities that lean towards oligarchy or towards democracy tend to continue to slide gradually in

760-531: A restive underclass something to do at some distance from the ruling class. There is a reference in the Politics to the assassination of Philip II of Macedon , which happened in 336 BC. So we know that at least some of the work was composed after the expansion of the Macedonian kingdom under Philip II which resulted in its dominion over Athens and much of the rest of Greece, subordinating Greece's many city-states to

836-454: A set of shorter works on certain political themes, combined with or interlaced with his marginal notes or with the notes taken by those who attended his Lyceum lectures. Aristotle was Macedonian . He attended Plato's Academy in Athens for about twenty years. He returned to Macedonia for a while, in part to tutor a young Alexander the Great , and then went back to Athens to found his own school,

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912-523: A spark can set off a fire that burns down the constitutional order. That spark can be something seemingly trivial and far-removed from the actual underlying causes that are causing the constitutional order to decay. By the time this happens, it's too late. It's important to address constitutional instability before the straw breaks the camel's back. Different sorts of constitutional orders fall in different ways. Democracies are most easily toppled by demagogues who either become tyrants themselves or who provoke

988-489: A study of how people should best live together in communities — the polis being seen by him as the best and most natural community for humans. The history of Greek city-states, their wars and intrigues and political churning, was well-documented. In addition to such documentation, Aristotle pursued a research project of collecting 158 constitutions of various city-states in order to examine them for their strong and weak points. This evidence-based, descriptive approach to

1064-431: A threatened oligarchy into seizing power to prevent a populist uprising that threatens their property and status. They can also decay slowly into worse forms of democracy if too many people are given the vote and electioneering and pandering to voters becomes the main way to get political power. Oligarchies become vulnerable when the oligarchs become haughty and abusive, when powerful and jealous people are denied entry to

1140-451: Is a sort of mix of democracy and oligarchy: "A constitution which is a really well-made combination of oligarchy and democracy," Aristotle says, "ought to look like both and like neither." It tends to most empower the middle-class, and is most healthy if economic inequality is kept within reasonable bounds. To prevent the majority from seizing power by force of numbers, you can use a variety of financial incentives that nominally disadvantage

1216-430: Is a sound man, may yet, taken all together, be better than the few, not individually but collectively." This is one argument for letting a broad base of people engage in political decision-making even though none of them are individually particularly qualified to do so. He argues against the idea that extraordinarily virtuous people ought to be given the reins of the state. Rather, "such men we must take not to be part of

1292-519: Is always an immoral violation of one's life, liberty, and property rights. Utilizing deceit instead of consent to achieve ends is also a violation of the Non-Aggression principle. Therefore, under the framework of the Non-Aggression principle, rape, murder, deception, involuntary taxation, government regulation, and other behaviors that initiate aggression against otherwise peaceful individuals are considered violations of this principle. This principle

1368-477: Is an association intended to enable its members, in their households and the kinships, to live well," says Aristotle, "its purpose is a perfect and self-sufficient life." So what is important is not so much who has the power, but whether that power is deployed skillfully toward that end. Political organizations based on equality of power, or on power distributed proportionally to wealth or nobility, are at best approximations to this. Ideally, those who contribute most to

1444-495: Is any Indian a slave." Politics (Aristotle) Politics ( Πολιτικά , Politiká ) is a work of political philosophy by Aristotle , a 4th-century BC Greek philosopher. At the end of the Nicomachean Ethics , Aristotle declared that the inquiry into ethics leads into a discussion of politics. The two works are frequently considered to be parts of a larger treatise — or perhaps connected lectures — dealing with

1520-453: Is most commonly adhered to by libertarians . A common elevator pitch for this principle is, "Good ideas don't require force." According to republican theorists of freedom, like the historian Quentin Skinner or the philosopher Philip Pettit , one's liberty should not be viewed as the absence of interference in one's actions, but as non-domination. According to this view, which originates in

1596-515: Is necessary to a point, but that does not make it a part of household management any more than it makes medicine a part of household management just because health is necessary. He criticizes income based upon trade and upon interest , saying that those who become avaricious do so because they forget that money merely symbolizes wealth without being wealth, and that interest is "contrary to nature" because it increases by itself not through exchange. Book I concludes with Aristotle's assertion that

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1672-526: Is protected from tyranny and the arbitrary exercise of authority , while the former refers to the liberty that comes from self-mastery, the freedom from inner compulsions such as weakness and fear. The modern day concept of political liberty has its origins in the Greek concepts of freedom and slavery. To be free, to the Greeks, was not to have a master, to be independent from a master (to live as one likes). That

1748-506: Is to be under no other restraint but the law of nature. Freedom of people under government is to be under no restraint apart from standing rules to live by that are common to everyone in the society and made by the lawmaking power established in it. Persons have a right or liberty to (1) follow their own will in all things that the law has not prohibited and (2) not be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, and arbitrary wills of others. John Stuart Mill , in his 1859 work, On Liberty ,

1824-692: Is typically divided into different varieties of court, each specializing in a different sort of dispute or auditing function. Aristotle next examines political instability in greater detail, beginning with factionalism. According to Aristotle, factionalism can arise due to ordinary human biases: people are biased toward self-interest. They usually find that people in situations like their own are not getting as much power, status, or resources as they deserve, and they are drawn to join with others of their situation to try to improve their lot. The following causes are examples of situations that can also lead to destabilizing factionalism: If conditions like these prevail,

1900-589: The Edicts of Ashoka the Great , which emphasize the importance of tolerance in public policy by the government. The slaughter or capture of prisoners of war also appears to have been condemned by Ashoka. Slavery also appears to have been non-existent in the Maurya Empire. However, according to Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, "Ashoka's orders seem to have been resisted right from the beginning." Roman law also embraced certain limited forms of liberty, even under

1976-517: The Lycaeum . Though he spent most of his life and career in Athens, he was never an Athenian citizen, but more of a resident alien , with few political rights (he could not own property, for instance). Indeed, throughout his life, he was never a fully-fledged citizen of any Greek polis . Citizenship in Greek city-states was usually limited to a minority of adult males. It included more responsibilities than

2052-562: The Mises Institute . France supported the Americans in their revolt against English rule and, in 1789, overthrew their own monarchy, with the cry of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité". The bloodbath that followed, known as the reign of terror , soured many people on the idea of liberty. Edmund Burke, considered one of the fathers of conservatism , wrote "The French had shewn themselves the ablest architects of ruin that had hitherto existed in

2128-513: The Russian revolutionary anarchist Mikhail Bakunin , liberty did not mean an abstract ideal but a concrete reality based on the equal liberty of others. In a positive sense, liberty consists of "the fullest development of all the faculties and powers of every human being, by education, by scientific training, and by material prosperity." Such a conception of liberty is " eminently social , because it can only be realized in society," not in isolation. In

2204-675: The guardians will increase rather than decrease dissensions, and sharing of wives and children will destroy natural affection. He concludes that common sense is against this arrangement for good reason, and claims that experiment shows it to be impractical. He next analyzes the regime presented in Plato's Laws . Aristotle then discusses the systems presented by two other philosophers, Phaleas of Chalcedon (who promoted methods of enforcing wealth egalitarianism) and Hippodamus of Miletus (who had detailed plans for utopian communities). After addressing regimes invented by theorists, Aristotle moves to

2280-405: The "philosophy of human affairs". In Aristotle's hierarchical system of philosophy he considers politics, the study of communities, to be of higher priority than ethics, which concerns individuals. The title of Politics literally means "the things concerning the πόλις ( polis )", and is the origin of the modern English word politics . As Aristotle explains, this is understood by him to be

2356-495: The Latin word liber , from Proto-Italic * louðeros , from Proto-Indo-European * h₁léwdʰeros , from * h₁lewdʰ- ("people"). The word "liberty" is commonly used in slogans or quotes, such as in " Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness " and " Liberté, égalité, fraternité ". Philosophers from the earliest times have considered the question of liberty. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD) wrote:

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2432-532: The Roman Digest , to be a liber homo , a free man, means not being subject to another's arbitrary will, that is to say, dominated by another. They also cite Machiavelli who asserted that you must be a member of a free self-governing civil association, a republic, if you are to enjoy individual liberty. The predominance of this view of liberty among parliamentarians during the English Civil War resulted in

2508-429: The ability of socialism and communism progressively reducing the average length of the workday to expand the "realm of freedom", or discretionary free time, for each person. Marx's notion of communist society and human freedom is thus radically individualistic. While many anarchists see freedom slightly differently, all oppose authority, including the authority of the state, of capitalism , and of nationalism . For

2584-544: The absence of alienation, where "alienated labor" refers to work people are forced to perform and un-alienated work refers to individuals pursuing their own creative interests. For Karl Marx, meaningful freedom is only attainable in a communist society characterized by superabundance and free access. Such a social arrangement would eliminate the need for alienated labor and enable individuals to pursue their own creative interests, leaving them to develop and maximize their full potentialities. This goes alongside Marx's emphasis on

2660-415: The association of people living together for the sake of noble action are entitled to a larger share of state authority. Justice means more than just conformity to constitutional norms; whatever destroys the health of society is not just, even if it was accomplished legally. In chapter 11, Aristotle explains the wisdom of the crowd phenomenon: "[I]t is possible that the many, no one of whom taken singly

2736-477: The citizenry, can be divided up in various ways, depending on the constitutional order, the purpose of the state, and the nature of the society it governs. At minimum, a state will have "organs" (analogous to the functional organs of a body) of sorts like agricultural, mechanical (manufacturing), commercial, labor, capital, military, judicial & deliberative/legislative, and executive/bureaucratic. He next considers varieties of democracy, including those in which

2812-458: The commons for economic gain. Oligarchy sets in, followed by tyranny, and then democracy, such that "one might say that it is hard to avoid having a democratic constitution." Political science, says Aristotle, should address the following questions: He distinguishes laws from constitutions: Of the constitutional varieties Aristotle categorized in the previous book, he ranks them as follows (best to worst): Aristotle says that states, and

2888-436: The commonwealth. People are free from the dominion of any will or legal restraint apart from that enacted by their own constituted lawmaking power according to the trust put in it. Thus, freedom is not as Sir Robert Filmer defines it: 'A liberty for everyone to do what he likes, to live as he pleases, and not to be tied by any laws.' Freedom is constrained by laws in both the state of nature and political society. Freedom of nature

2964-568: The core belief of liberalism is toleration. Liberals allow others freedom to do what they want, in exchange for having the same freedom in return. This idea of freedom is personal rather than political. William Safire points out that liberalism is attacked by both the Right and the Left: by the Right for defending such practices as abortion, homosexuality, and atheism, and by the Left for defending free enterprise and

3040-465: The creation of the liberal concept of freedom as non-interference in Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan . Socialists view freedom as a concrete situation as opposed to a purely abstract ideal. Freedom is a state of being where individuals have agency to pursue their creative interests unhindered by coercive social relationships, specifically those they are forced to engage in as a requisite for survival under

3116-403: The direction of their lean, with occasional lurches in the opposite direction when the people on the other side feel wronged enough to do something about it. Monarchies and tyrannies are undermined by resentment of injustice and ill-treatment, fear of things getting worse (we'd better overthrow the tyrant now while we still can), contempt for the tyrant's character (for example, when the heir to

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3192-589: The examination of three existing regimes that were commonly held to be well managed. These are the Spartan , Cretan , and Carthaginian . The book concludes with some observations on regimes and legislators, and on the reforms of Solon in Athens. Aristotle considers citizenship and who counts as a citizen. He asserts that a citizen is anyone who is "entitled to participate in office, deliberative or judicial". This excludes honorary citizens, resident aliens, slaves, women, foreigners even if they have some access to

3268-406: The idea that there is a sort of natural lifecycle of states: A state begins when it is founded by an outstanding individual, capable of conferring benefits on others, who becomes the monarch. As more people of good character emerge in the state, they begin to agitate for more political power, and an aristocracy emerges. But corruption then sets in as the aristocracy leverages their political power over

3344-542: The individual," and as such, he describes an inherent and continuous antagonism between liberty and authority and thus, the prevailing question becomes "how to make the fitting adjustment between individual independence and social control". According to a 2024 study, a global conception of liberty took form during the late Middle Ages (circa 1000–1600), as "emic terms used across Afro-Eurasia to denote liberty were interconnected through various translingual practices resulting from multilingual governance, courtly encounters, and

3420-448: The legal system through commercial treaties, boys too young for military service, or people who have been exiled or stripped of their citizenship. Aristotle is also doubtful about whether citizenship should extend to the banausos or working classes. He next considers what sort of entity a state is, whether it is a single thing, and under what circumstances it can be considered to have changed or, alternatively, to have been supplanted by

3496-682: The majority rules but has restraints into what they can do with that rule, and those in which the majority rules utterly. He says that demagogues are typically the catalyst for a democracy going rogue and exercising power irresponsibly. Demagogues have a similar role in a decaying democracy as toadies have in a decaying monarchy: they flatter the ruler(s) into ever more arbitrary and selfish exercises of power. There are four varieties of oligarchy: those based on property; those originally based on property but that you cannot just buy your way into; those that are hereditary but limited by law and precedent; and those that are hereditary and arbitrary. A polity

3572-446: The master/slave relationship, and the village. The highest form of community is the polis. Aristotle comes to this conclusion because he believes the public life is far more virtuous than the private and because "man is by nature a political animal". He begins with the relationship between the city and man, and then specifically discusses the household. He takes issue with the view that political rule, kingly rule, and rule over

3648-505: The more passive matter-of-fact citizenship that is typical today. And it usually assumed that those who were citizens shared common goals, a common outlook, and a mutual interest in the success of the polis . Greece was divided politically into territories ruled by many independent city-states. These often formed alliances and sometimes centrally-governed confederations (particularly in times of war). Some developed colonies, both as ways of finding new agricultural land and as ways of giving

3724-504: The oligarchy, or when internal intrigue divides the oligarchs. Demagogues can exploit these things to lead populist democratic uprisings. Oligarchies may also fall by "temporarily" ceding power to a military leader during time of war, who then either refuses to relinquish power or decides to devolve it to a military junta rather than to the original oligarchs. Independent, "non-political" militaries can evolve into political factions of their own that can undermine oligarchies. Reforms (for example

3800-489: The person enslaved or is always unjust and bad. He distinguishes between those who are slaves because the law says they are and those who are slaves by nature , saying the inquiry hinges on whether there are any such natural slaves. Only someone as different from other people as the body is from the soul or beasts are from human beings would be a slave by nature, Aristotle concludes, all others being slaves solely by law or convention. Some scholars have therefore concluded that

3876-419: The proper object of household rule is the virtuous character of one's wife and children, not the management of slaves or the acquisition of property. Rule over the slaves is despotic, rule over children kingly, and rule over one's wife political (except there is no rotation in office). Aristotle questions whether it is sensible to speak of the "virtue" of a slave and whether the "virtues" of a wife and children are

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3952-418: The proverbial public square – but, as a practical matter, my most cherished rights are those that I possess in my bedroom and hospital room and death chamber. Most people are far more concerned that they can control their own bodies than they are about petitioning Congress. In modern America, various competing ideologies have divergent views about how best to promote liberty. Liberals in the original sense of

4028-410: The qualifications for natural slavery preclude the existence of such a being (though Aristotle was convinced that natural slaves were a thing). Aristotle then moves to the question of property in general, arguing that the acquisition of property does not form a part of household management ( οἰκονομική , oikonomikē ) and criticizing those who engage in excessive chrematistics . Wealth accumulation

4104-504: The rest of the works of Aristotle , are often made by referring to the Bekker section numbers . Politics spans the Bekker sections 1252a to 1342b. In the first book, Aristotle discusses the city ( πόλις , polis ) or "political community" ( κοινωνία πολιτική , koinōnía politikē ) in comparison with other types of communities and partnerships such as the household ( οἶκος , oikos ),

4180-430: The rights of all involved. In this sense, the exercise of liberty is subject to capability and limited by the rights of others. Thus liberty entails the responsible use of freedom under the rule of law without depriving anyone else of their freedom. Liberty can be taken away as a form of punishment. In many countries, people can be deprived of their liberty if they are convicted of criminal acts. Liberty originates from

4256-662: The rights of the individual over the collective. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica , libertarians hold liberty as their primary political value. Their approach to implementing liberty involves opposing any governmental coercion, aside from that which is necessary to prevent individuals from coercing each other. Libertarianism is guided by the principle commonly known as the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP). The Non-Aggression Principle asserts that aggression against an individual or an individual's property

4332-707: The rule of the Roman Emperors. However, these liberties were accorded only to Roman citizens . Many of the liberties enjoyed under Roman law endured through the Middle Ages, but were enjoyed solely by the nobility , rarely by the common man. The idea of inalienable and universal liberties had to wait until the Age of Enlightenment . The social contract theory, most influentially formulated by Hobbes , John Locke and Rousseau (though first suggested by Plato in The Republic ),

4408-546: The same as those of a man. He thinks that such people have their own sort of virtues, though not the same set as those of free men, and that even to the extent that they have virtues with the same names as those of free men, they mean somewhat different things. Book II examines various views concerning the best regime. It opens with an analysis of the regime presented in Plato 's Republic . Aristotle maintains that, contrary to Plato's assertions, communal share of property between

4484-509: The same rights and had the same freedom of religion , women had the same rights as men, and slavery was abolished (550 BC). All the palaces of the kings of Persia were built by paid workers in an era when slaves typically did such work. In the Maurya Empire of ancient India , citizens of all religions and ethnic groups had some rights to freedom , tolerance , and equality . The need for tolerance on an egalitarian basis can be found in

4560-484: The spread of religions. Words for liberty in different languages paralleled each other in bilingual legal documents, resonated with each other in different translations of religious texts, and stood next to each other in bureaucratic glossaries and dictionaries." The study concludes, "thus, the concept(s) of liberty, instead of being a product of the West, is more accurately seen as a result of interactions among different parts of

4636-411: The stages of timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and finally tyranny. Aristotle says that this is oversimplified, does not make theoretical sense, and fails the empirical test of looking at regime change in the historical record. History shows a much larger variety of transformations than these have taken place. Aristotle next looks more closely at democratic and at oligarchic constitutions. He begins with

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4712-403: The state... there is no law that embraces men of that calibre: they are themselves law." Indeed, a wise state might be better off showing such people the door so that they do not become sources of political instability. Finally, he returns to his division of varieties of constitution, and begins to analyze them in greater detail, beginning with varieties of monarchy/tyranny. He also explores

4788-519: The study of politics was a hallmark of Aristotle's method, and a contrast with the more idealistic from-first-principles approach of Plato , as seen for example in the Republic . As with the Nicomachean Ethics , the Politics is not a polished work as Aristotle would have written it for publication. There are various theories about the text which has come down to us. It may have been assembled from

4864-496: The threat is also usually to the monarch and not to the constitution: the revolutionaries want vengeance more than they want to seize power. Aristotle gives some advice about how to preserve and stabilize various types of constitutional order: Finally, Aristotle criticizes Plato's suggestion from the Republic that there is a natural lifecycle of constitutions in which they begin as aristocracies and then progressively decay through

4940-401: The throne turns out to be inept), when the tyranny confiscates property, or when someone has ambitions to seize some of the honor and riches the tyrant is hoarding. Some of this is similar to the sources of instability in other constitutional orders, but in a monarchy it's more personal: the target of the resentment is usually the monarch himself rather than the constitutional order. And therefore

5016-410: The village], and nature is itself an end; for whatever is the end-product of the coming into existence of any object, that is what we call its nature… Moreover the aim and the end is perfection; and self-sufficiency [ αὐτάρκεια , autarkeia ] is both end and perfection. Aristotle discusses the parts of the household, which includes slaves. He considers whether slavery can ever be just and better for

5092-512: The wealthy to keep the lower classes satisfied with giving the wealthy more power (for example you can fine the wealthy for neglecting to serve on a jury but let the poor skip out without penalty). Aristotle next discusses the legislative element of government, which he says has the following responsibilities: The executive branch has more variety, depending on the particular government, its constitutional structure, and how its members are chosen. The judicial branch varies in this way as well. It

5168-517: The will to do. John Locke (1632–1704) rejected that definition of liberty. While not specifically mentioning Hobbes, he attacks Sir Robert Filmer who had the same definition. According to Locke: In the state of nature, liberty consists of being free from any superior power on Earth. People are not under the will or lawmaking authority of others but have only the law of nature for their rule. In political society, liberty consists of being under no other lawmaking power except that established by consent in

5244-527: The word see equality as a necessary component of freedom. Progressives stress freedom from business monopoly as essential. Libertarians disagree, and see economic and individual freedom as best. The Tea Party movement sees "big government" as an enemy of freedom. Other major participants in the modern American libertarian movement include the Libertarian Party , the Free State Project , and

5320-521: The world." According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics , liberalism is "the belief that it is the aim of politics to preserve individual rights and to maximize freedom of choice ". But they point out that there is considerable discussion about how to achieve those goals. Every discussion of freedom depends on three key components: who is free, what they are free to do, and what forces restrict their freedom. John Gray argues that

5396-550: The world; the globalization of liberty did not start with the global expansion of the Euro-American empires but has a rich and complex history that predates them." Timeline: According to the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence , all people have a natural right to " Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ". This declaration of liberty was troubled for 90 years by the continued institutionalization of legalized Black slavery, as slave owners argued that their liberty

5472-496: Was among the first to provide a political classification of rights , in particular through the notion of sovereignty and of natural rights . The thinkers of the Enlightenment reasoned that law governed both heavenly and human affairs, and that law gave the king his power, rather than the king's power giving force to law. This conception of law would find its culmination in the ideas of Montesquieu . The conception of law as

5548-409: Was expanded further to prohibit government interference with personal choices. In the 1965 United States Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut , Justice William O. Douglas argued that liberties relating to personal relationships, such as marriage, have a unique primacy of place in the hierarchy of freedoms. Jacob M. Appel has summarized this principle: I am grateful that I have rights in

5624-536: Was paramount since it involved property, their slaves, and that Blacks had no rights that any White man was obliged to recognize. The Supreme Court, in the 1857 Dred Scott decision, upheld this principle. In 1866, after the American Civil War , the US Constitution was amended to extend rights to persons of color, and in 1920 voting rights were extended to women. By the later half of the 20th century, liberty

5700-414: Was the first to recognize the difference between liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as the absence of coercion. In his 1958 lecture " Two Concepts of Liberty ", Isaiah Berlin formally framed the differences between two perspectives as the distinction between two opposite concepts of liberty: positive liberty and negative liberty . The latter designates a negative condition in which an individual

5776-461: Was the original Greek concept of freedom. It is closely linked with the concept of democracy, as Aristotle put it : This applied only to free men. In Athens, for instance, women could not vote or hold office and were legally and socially dependent on a male relative. The populations of the Persian Empire enjoyed some degree of freedom. Citizens of all religions and ethnic groups were given

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