View source for Liberty

{{Short description|Philosophical and political concept}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Statue of Liberty 7.jpg|thumb|''Liberty Enlightening the World'' (known as the [[Statue of Liberty]]), by sculptor [[Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi]], was donated to the US by France in 1886 as an artistic [[Liberty (personification)|personification of liberty]].]]
'''Liberty''' is the state of being [[freedom|free]] within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-01-01 |editor-last=Stevenson |editor-first=Angus |editor2-last=Lindberg |editor2-first=Christine A. |title=New Oxford American Dictionary |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195392883.001.0001 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195392883.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-539288-3 |access-date=2023-06-02 |archive-date=2020-03-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200312102208/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195392883.001.0001/acref-9780195392883 |url-status=live }}</ref> The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the [[Constitutional law of the United States]], [[ordered liberty]] means creating a balanced society where individuals have the freedom to act without unnecessary interference ([[negative liberty]]) and access to opportunities and resources to pursue their goals ([[positive liberty]]), all within a fair legal system.

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 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 [[duty|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's [[etymology]] is from the [[Latin]] word {{wikt-lang|la|liber}}, from [[Proto-Italic language|Proto-Italic]] {{lang|itc-x-proto|louðeros}}, from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₁léwdʰeros}}, from {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₁lewdʰ-}} ("people") (thus [[cognate]] to archaic English {{wikt-lang|en|lede}} ("man, person")).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vaan |first=Michiel de |author-link=Michiel de Vaan |url=https://archive.org/stream/MichielVaanEtymologicalDictionaryOfLatin_201811/Michiel%20Vaan%2C%20Etymological%20dictionary%20of%20Latin#page/n351/mode/1up |title=Etymological dictionary of Latin and the other italic languages |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-16797-1 |series=Leiden Indo-European etymological dictionary series |volume=7 |location=Leiden, Boston |page=338 |access-date=2024-08-30}}</ref> The word "liberty" is commonly used in slogans or quotes, such as in "[[Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness]]"<ref>[[United States Declaration of Independence]], ''The World Almanac'', 2016, {{ISBN|978-1-60057-201-2}}.</ref> and "''[[Liberté, égalité, fraternité]]''".<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://franceintheus.org/spip.php?article620 | title=Liberty, Equality, Fraternity – France in the United States / Embassy of France in Washington, DC | access-date=2018-07-29 | archive-date=2016-03-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305183529/http://ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article620 | url-status=live }}</ref>

== Philosophy ==
[[File:John-stuart-mill-sized.jpg|thumb|upright|[[John Stuart Mill]]]]
Philosophers from the earliest times have considered the question of liberty. Roman Emperor [[Marcus Aurelius]] (121–180 AD) wrote:
{{blockquote|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.<ref>Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", Book I, ''Wordsworth Classics of World Literature'', {{ISBN|1-85326-486-5}}</ref>}}

According to [[compatibilist]] [[Thomas Hobbes]] (1588–1679):

{{blockquote|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 the will to do.|''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]]'', Part 2, Ch. XXI.}}

[[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:

{{blockquote|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 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 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.<ref>''[[Two Treatises on Government]]: A Translation into Modern English'', ISR, 2009, p. 76</ref>}}

[[John Stuart Mill]], in his 1859 work, ''[[On Liberty]]'', was the first to recognize the difference between liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as the absence of coercion.<ref>Westbrooks, Logan Hart (2008) "Personal Freedom" [https://books.google.com/books?id=4gxaa371USUC&pg=PA134 p. 134] ''In'' Owens, William (compiler) (2008) ''Freedom: Keys to Freedom from Twenty-one National Leaders'' Main Street Publications, Memphis, Tennessee, pp. 3–38, {{ISBN|978-0-9801152-0-8}}</ref>

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 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.<ref>''Metaphilosoph: Motives for Philosophizing Debunking and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations.'' Kelly Dean Jolley. pp. 262–270 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

== Politics ==
{{main|Political freedom}}

=== History ===
[[File:Aristotle Altemps Inv8575.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Bust of [[Aristotle]]]]

The modern day concept of political liberty has its origins in the Greek concepts of freedom and slavery.<ref>Rodriguez, Junius P. (2007) ''The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery: A–K''; Vol. II, L–Z, {{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref> To be free, to the Greeks, was not to have a master, to be independent from a master (to live as one likes).<ref>Mogens Herman Hansen, 2010, Democratic Freedom and the Concept of Freedom in Plato and Aristotle</ref><ref>{{Cite book | doi=10.16997/book15| isbn=978-1911534600| title=Farewell to Freedom: A Western Genealogy of Liberty| year=2018| last1=Baldissone| first1=Riccardo| s2cid=158916040}}</ref> That was the original Greek concept of freedom. It is closely linked with the concept of democracy, [[Politics (Aristotle)|as Aristotle put it]]:

:"This, then, is one note of liberty which all democrats affirm to be the principle of their state. Another is that a man should live as he likes. This, they say, is the privilege of a freeman, since, on the other hand, not to live as a man likes is the mark of a slave. This is the second characteristic of democracy, whence has arisen the claim of men to be ruled by none, if possible, or, if this is impossible, to rule and be ruled in turns; and so it contributes to the freedom based upon equality."<ref>Aristotle, Politics 6.2</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mikalson|first=Jon|title=Ancient Greek Religion|year=2009|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-1-4051-8177-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8o6xxlwbldcC&q=ancient+Greece+++rights+women&pg=PA129|edition=2nd|page=129}}</ref>

The populations of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]] enjoyed some degree of freedom. Citizens of all [[religion]]s and [[ethnic group]]s were given 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.<ref>Arthur Henry Robertson, John Graham Merrills (1996). ''Human Rights in the World: An Introduction to the Study of the International Protection of Human Rights''. [[Manchester University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-7190-4923-7}}.{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref>

In the [[Maurya Empire]] of [[History of India|ancient India]], citizens of all religions and ethnic groups had some rights to [[Freedom (political)|freedom]], [[Toleration|tolerance]], and [[equality before the law|equality]]. The need for tolerance on an [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] basis can be found in the [[Edicts of Ashoka|Edicts]] of [[Ashoka the Great]], which emphasize the importance of tolerance in public policy by the government. The slaughter or capture of [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] also appears to have been condemned by Ashoka.<ref>[[Amartya Sen]] (1997). ''Human Rights and Asian Values''. {{ISBN|0-87641-151-0}}.{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref> Slavery also appears to have been non-existent in the Maurya Empire.<ref>[[Arrian]], ''[[Indica (Arrian)|Indica]]'':
<br />{{blockquote|"This also is remarkable in [[History of India|India]], that all Indians are free, and no Indian at all is a slave. In this the Indians agree with the [[Lacedaemonian]]s. Yet the Lacedaemonians have [[Helot]]s for slaves, who perform the duties of slaves; but the Indians have no slaves at all, much less is any Indian a slave."}}</ref> However, according to Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, "Ashoka's orders seem to have been resisted right from the beginning."<ref>Hermann Kulke, Dietmar Rothermund (2004). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=V73N8js5ZgAC&pg=PA66 A history of India]''. Routledge. p. 66. {{ISBN|0-415-32920-5}}</ref>

[[Roman law]] also embraced certain limited forms of liberty, even under the rule of the Roman Emperors. However, these liberties were accorded only to [[Roman citizenship|Roman citizens]].  Many liberties established under Roman law endured through the Middle Ages, but were generally limited to the [[nobility]] and ruling classes, seldom by common people.<ref>John Merryman, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America, 3rd edition, Stanford University Press, 2007, pp. 38–40.</ref> The idea of inalienable and universal liberties had to wait until the [[Age of Enlightenment]].

=== Social contract ===
[[File:French-Liberty-British-Slavery-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|In ''French Liberty. British Slavery'' (1792), [[James Gillray]] caricatured French "liberty" as the opportunity to starve and British "slavery" as bloated complaints about taxation.]]
The [[social contract]] theory, most influentially formulated by [[Hobbes]], [[John Locke]] and [[Rousseau]] (though first suggested by Plato in ''[[Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]''), 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 [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] [[logic|reasoned]] that [[law]] governed both heavenly and human affairs, and that law gave the [[monarch|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 a relationship between individuals, rather than families, came to the fore, and with it the increasing focus on [[individualism|individual liberty]] as a fundamental reality, given by "[[Nature]] and [[God|Nature's God]]," which, in the [[utopia|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 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".<ref name="mill1">Mill, J.&nbsp;S. (1869), [http://www.bartleby.com/130/1.html "Chapter I: Introductory"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803024534/https://www.bartleby.com/130/1.html |date=2020-08-03 }}, ''On Liberty''.</ref>

==Origins of political freedom==
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 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."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Yin |first=Shoufu |date=2024 |title=The Global Network of Liberty: Toward a New Framework for Understanding the History of Political Concepts |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/global-network-of-liberty-toward-a-new-framework-for-understanding-the-history-of-political-concepts/DFA392E1479A4AB2E41C61A62D3BA997 |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |doi=10.1017/S0003055424001102 |issn=0003-0554|doi-access=free }}</ref> 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 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."<ref name=":0" />

=== England and Great Britain ===
[[File:Magna Carta (British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106).jpg|thumb|[[Magna Carta]] (originally known as the Charter of Liberties) of 1215. The [[British Library]].]]
Timeline:
* 1066 – as a condition of his coronation [[William the Conqueror]] assented to the London Charter of Liberties which guaranteed the "Saxon" liberties of the [[City of London]].
* 1100 – the [[Charter of Liberties]] is passed which sets out certain liberties of nobles, church officials and individuals.
* 1166 – [[Henry II of England]] transformed English law by passing the [[Assize of Clarendon]]. The act, a forerunner to trial by jury, started the abolition of trial by combat and trial by ordeal.<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Human Rights|url=https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/what-are-human-rights/history-human-rights|publisher=Liberty|access-date=17 August 2015|date=2010-07-20|archive-date=2015-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324232544/https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/what-are-human-rights/history-human-rights|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 1187-1189 – publication of [[Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie]] which contains authoritative definitions of freedom and servitude.
* 1215 – [[Magna Carta]] was enacted, becoming the cornerstone of liberty in England, then Great Britain, and later the world.{{sfn|Danziger|Gillingham|2004|p=278}}{{sfn|Breay|2010|p=48}}
* 1628 – the English Parliament passed the [[Petition of Right]] which set out specific liberties of English citizens.
* 1679 – the English Parliament passed the [[Habeas Corpus Act 1679|Habeas Corpus Act]] which outlawed unlawful or arbitrary imprisonment.
* 1689 – the [[Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights]] granted "freedom of speech in Parliament", and reinforced existing [[civil rights]] in England. The Scots law equivalent the [[Claim of Right 1689|Claim of Right]] is passed.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bill of Rights|url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/takingliberties/staritems/510billofrights.html|publisher=British Library|access-date=23 June 2015|archive-date=22 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922231834/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/takingliberties/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 1772 – the [[Somerset v Stewart]] judgement found that slavery was unsupported by common law in England and Wales.
* 1859 – an essay by philosopher John Stuart Mill, entitled ''[[On Liberty]]'', argued for toleration and individuality. "If any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |year=1859 |title= On Liberty |publisher=John W.Parker & Son |place=London |edition= 2nd |url= https://archive.org/details/onliberty03millgoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/onliberty03millgoog/page/n5 1] |quote=editions:HMraC_Owoi8C. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |year=1864 |title=On Liberty |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman Roberts & Green |place=London |edition=3rd |url=https://archive.org/details/onliberty00inmill }}</ref>
* 1948 – British representatives attempted to but were prevented from adding a legal framework to the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]. It was not until 1976 that the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]] came into force, giving a legal status to most of the Declaration.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights |date=1952 |publisher=The British Library |edition=Final authorized text |access-date=16 August 2015 |archive-date=10 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910234546/http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/universal-declaration-of-human-rights |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1958 – ''[[Two Concepts of Liberty]]'', by [[Isaiah Berlin]], identified "negative liberty" as an obstacle, as distinct from "positive liberty" which promotes self-mastery and the concepts of freedom.<ref>{{cite web|last=Carter|first=Ian|title=''Positive and Negative Liberty''|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/|date=5 March 2012|publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=16 August 2015|archive-date=14 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060914165436/http://plato.stanford.edu//entries/liberty-positive-negative/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== United States ===
[[File:Liberty Bell 2017a.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.8|The [[Liberty Bell]] is a popular icon of liberty in the US.]]

According to the 1776 [[United States Declaration of Independence]], all people have a [[Natural and legal rights|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 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.<ref>The Constitution of the United States of America, ''The World Almanac and book of facts'' (2012), pp. 485–486, Amendment XIV "Citizenship Rights not to be abridged.", Amendment XV "Race no bar to voting rights.", Amendment XIX, "Giving nationwide suffrage to women.". World Almanac Books, {{ISBN|978-1-60057-147-3}}.</ref>

By the later half of the 20th century, liberty 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.<ref>''Griswold v. Connecticut''. 381 U.S. 479 (1965) Decided June 7, 1965</ref> Jacob M. Appel has summarized this principle:
{{blockquote|I am grateful that I have rights in 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-m-appel/a-culture-of-liberty_b_242402.html|title=A Culture of Liberty|date=21 July 2009|work=The Huffington Post|access-date=22 July 2009|archive-date=25 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090725110435/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-m-appel/a-culture-of-liberty_b_242402.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

In modern America, various competing ideologies have divergent views about how best to promote liberty.  [[Liberalism|Liberals]] in the original sense of the word see equality as a necessary component of freedom.  [[Progressive Era|Progressives]] stress freedom from business monopoly as essential. [[Libertarianism in the United States|Libertarians]] disagree, and see economic and individual freedom as best. The [[Tea Party movement]] sees "big government" as an enemy of freedom.<ref>Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics'', 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-19-920516-5}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Capitol Reader|title=Summary of Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto – Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VGuxEfI9GwcC&pg=PP9|year=2013|publisher=Primento|isbn=978-2-511-00084-7|pages=9–10}}<br />{{cite news |last=Haidt |first=Jonathan |date=16 October 2010 |title=What the Tea Partiers Really Want |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703673604575550243700895762 |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |publisher=Dow Jones & Company, Inc |access-date=17 March 2015 |archive-date=3 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403020645/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703673604575550243700895762 |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite book|author=Ronald P. Formisano|title=The Tea Party: A Brief History|url=https://archive.org/details/teapartybriefhis0000form|url-access=registration|year=2012|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-1-4214-0596-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/teapartybriefhis0000form/page/72 72]}}</ref> Other major participants in the modern American libertarian movement include the [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lp.org/about|title=About the Libertarian Party|access-date=May 16, 2022|archive-date=May 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508082636/https://www.lp.org/about/|url-status=live}}</ref> the [[Free State Project]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://reason.com/podcast/2021/07/30/is-the-free-state-project-a-better-idea-than-the-libertarian-party/|title=Is the Free State Project a Better Idea than the Libertarian Party?|date=July 30, 2021|access-date=May 16, 2022|archive-date=May 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505130326/https://reason.com/podcast/2021/07/30/is-the-free-state-project-a-better-idea-than-the-libertarian-party/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://reason.com/2013/05/15/the-free-state-project-grows-up/|title=The Free State Project Grows Up|date=June 2013|access-date=2022-05-16|archive-date=2022-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516173141/https://reason.com/2013/05/15/the-free-state-project-grows-up/|url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[Mises Institute]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mises.org/about-mises/what-is-the-mises-Institute|title=What is the Mises Institute|date=18 June 2014|access-date=May 16, 2022|archive-date=20 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141120231825/https://mises.org/about-mises/what-is-the-mises-Institute|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== France ===
[[File:La Liberté guidant le peuple - Eugène Delacroix - Musée du Louvre Peintures RF 129 - après restauration 2024.jpg|thumb|right|[[Eugène Delacroix]] – ''[[Liberty Leading the People|Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple)]]'' (1830)]]
France supported the Americans in their revolt against English rule and, in 1789, [[French Revolution|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 the world."<ref>Clark, J.C.D., ''Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France: a Critical Edition'', 2001, Stanford. pp. 66–67, {{ISBN|0-8047-3923-4}}.</ref>

==Ideologies==

=== Liberalism ===
{{Main|Liberalism}}
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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-920516-5}}{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref>  John Gray argues that 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.<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=Gray|title=Two Faces of Liberalism|publisher=The New Press|year=2000|isbn=1-56584-589-7|location=New York, NY|pages=1–33}}</ref>  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 the rights of the individual over the collective.<ref>{{cite book|first=William|last=Safire|title=Safire's Political Dictionary|quotation=Liberalism takes criticism from both the right and the left,...|page=388|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-19-534334-2}}</ref>

=== Libertarianism ===
{{Main|Libertarianism}}
According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', [[libertarians]] hold liberty as their primary political value.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Libertarianism|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/339321/libertarianism|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=2014-05-20|quote=libertarianism, political philosophy that takes individual liberty to be the primary political value|archive-date=2015-05-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504222253/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/339321/libertarianism|url-status=live}}</ref> Their approach to implementing liberty involves opposing any governmental coercion, aside from that which is necessary to prevent individuals from coercing each other.<ref>David Kelley, "Life, liberty, and property." ''Social Philosophy and Policy'' (1984) 1#2 pp. 108–118.</ref>

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 is always an immoral violation of one's life, liberty, and property rights.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://reason.com/2015/03/29/how-many-rights/|title=For Libertarians, There Is Only One Fundamental Right|date=29 March 2015|access-date=4 March 2022|archive-date=8 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308222328/https://reason.com/2015/03/29/how-many-rights/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-morality-of-libertarianism/|title="The Morality of Libertarianism"|date=1 October 2015|access-date=4 March 2022|archive-date=23 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123135824/http://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-morality-of-libertarianism/|url-status=live}}</ref>  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.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block26.html| title=The Non-Aggression Axiom of Libertarianism| publisher=[[Lew Rockwell]]| access-date=2016-03-22| archive-date=2016-01-22| archive-url=https://archive.today/20160122021714/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block26.html| url-status=live}}</ref> This principle is most commonly adhered to by [[Libertarianism in the United States|libertarians]]. A common elevator pitch for this principle is, "Good ideas don't require force."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/good_ideas_dont_require_force|title=""Good ideas don't require force"|date=4 July 2021|access-date=4 March 2022|archive-date=8 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308151437/https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/good_ideas_dont_require_force|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Republican liberty ===
{{republicanism sidebar}}
According to republican theorists of freedom, like the historian [[Quentin Skinner]]<ref>Quentin Skinner, contributor and co-editor, ''Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, Volume I: Republicanism and Constitutionalism in Early Modern Europe'', Cambridge University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0-521-67235-1}}{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref><ref>Quentil Skinner, contributor and co-editor, ''Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, Volume II:  The Values of Republicanism in Early Modern Europe'' Cambridge University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0-521-67234-4}}{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref> or the philosopher [[Philip Pettit]],<ref>Philip Pettit, ''Republicanism: a theory of freedom and government'', 1997</ref> republican liberty consists not simply in the absence of interference (negative liberal freedom), but in the absence of arbitrary dependence on others (as non-domination). A citizen is free when they are not subject to the discretionary will of any other party, public or private. According to this view, which originates in the Roman [[Digest (Roman law)|Digest]], to be a free man, means not being subject to another's arbitrary will, that is to say, dominated by another. They 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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GF6X2ow__MgC&pg=PA158 The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume 1, The Renaissance, By Quentin Skinner]</ref>

While republican ideas of liberty influenced parliamentarians during the [[English Civil War]], Thomas Hobbes developed a distinct conception of liberty in [[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]], that emphasizes freedom as non-interference, partly in response to the political instability, rather than as a direct continuation of republican non-domination.<ref>Skinner, Quentin, ed. Hobbes and Republicanism. Cambridge University Press, 2008. pp. 4–6</ref><ref>Tuck, Richard. The Rights of War and Peace. Oxford University Press, 1999. pp. 124–127</ref>

=== Socialism ===
{{Main|Socialism}}
Socialists view freedom as a concrete situation as opposed to a purely abstract ideal. Freedom is a state of being where individuals have [[Agency (sociology)|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 a given social system. Freedom thus requires both the material economic conditions that make freedom possible alongside social relationships and institutions conducive to freedom.<ref>{{cite book |last= Bhargava|first= Rajeev |title= Political Theory: An Introduction |publisher= Pearson Education India|date=2008|page = 255|quote=Genuine freedom as Marx described it, would become possible only when life activity was no longer constrained by the requirements of production or by the limitations of material scarcity...Thus, in the socialist view, freedom is not an abstract ideal but a concrete situation that ensues only when certain conditions of interaction between man and nature (material conditions), and man and other men (social relations) are fulfilled.}}</ref>

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 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.<ref>{{cite book |last= Goodwin|first= Barbara |title= Using Political Ideas |publisher= Wiley|date=2007|isbn=978-0-470-02552-9|pages = 107–109|quote=Socialists consider the pleasures of creation equal, if not superior, to those of acquisition and consumption, hence the importance of work in socialist society.  Whereas the capitalist/Calvinist work ethic applauds the moral virtue of hard work, idealistic socialists emphasize the joy. This vision of 'creative man', Homo Faber, has consequences for their view of freedom...Socialist freedom is the freedom to unfold and develop one's potential, especially through unalienated work.}}</ref>

==== Marxism ====
{{Main|Marxism}}
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 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.<ref>{{cite book |last= Wood|first= John Cunningham |title= Karl Marx's Economics: Critical Assessments I |publisher= Routledge|date=1996|isbn=978-0-415-08714-8|pages = 248–249|quote=Affluence and increased provision of free goods would reduce alienation in the work process and, in combination with (1), the alienation of man's 'species-life'. Greater leisure would create opportunities for creative and artistic activity outside of work.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Peffer|first= Rodney G. |title= Marxism, Morality, and Social Justice |publisher= Princeton University Press|date=2014|isbn= 978-0-691-60888-4|page = 73|quote= Marx believed the reduction of necessary labor time to be, evaluatively speaking, an absolute necessity. He claims that real wealth is the developed productive force of all individuals. It is no longer the labor time but the disposable time that is the measure of wealth.}}</ref> Marx's notion of communist society and human freedom is thus radically individualistic.<ref name="Karl Marx on Equality">{{Cite web |title=Karl Marx on Equality |url=http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/19808/Allen-Wood-Marx-on-Equality.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151109182602/http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/19808/Allen-Wood-Marx-on-Equality.pdf |archive-date=2015-11-09 |access-date=2022-11-18}}</ref>

=== Anarchism ===
{{main|Anarchism}}
While many anarchists see freedom slightly differently, all oppose authority, including the [[authority]] of the state, of [[capitalism]], and of [[nationalism]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Routledge companion to social and political philosophy|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|others=Gaus, Gerald F., D'Agostino, Fred|isbn=978-0415874564|location=New York|oclc=707965867}}{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref> For the [[Russian Revolution|Russian revolution]]ary anarchist [[Mikhail Bakunin]], liberty did not mean an abstract ideal but a concrete reality based on the equal liberty of others. In a [[Positive liberty|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 "[[Socialism|eminently social]], because it can only be realized in society," not in isolation. In a [[Negative liberty|negative]] sense, liberty is "the revolt of the individual against all divine, collective, and individual authority."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1871/man-society.htm|title=Works of Mikhail Bakunin 1871|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=2019-10-16|archive-date=2019-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016220108/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1871/man-society.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Historical writings on liberty ==
* {{Cite book | publisher = Awnsham Churchill | author = John Locke | title = Two Treatises of Government: In the Former, the False Principles, and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and His Followers, Are Detected and Overthrown. the Latter Is an Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government. | location = London | year = 1689 | title-link = Two Treatises of Government | author-link = John Locke }}
* {{Cite book | publisher = Guillaumin & Co | last = Frédéric Bastiat | author-link = Frédéric Bastiat | title = The Law | location = Paris | year = 1850 | title-link = The Law (1850 book) }}
* {{Cite book | publisher = John W Parker and Son | author = John Stuart Mill | title = On Liberty | location = London | year = 1859 | title-link = On Liberty | author-link = John Stuart Mill }}
* {{Cite book | publisher = Smith, Elder, & Co. | author = James Fitzjames Stephen | title = Liberty, Equality, Fraternity | location = London | year = 1874 | url= http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=572 | author-link = James Fitzjames Stephen }}

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=23em}}
* [[Civil liberties]]
* [[Gratis versus libre]]
* [[Harm principle]]
* [[Intentional living]]
* [[List of freedom indices]]
* [[Real freedom]]
* [[Refusal of work]]
* [[Rule according to higher law]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|35em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Breay |first=Claire |author-link=Claire Breay |year=2010 |title=Magna Carta: Manuscripts and Myths |publisher=The British Library |location=London |isbn=978-0-7123-5833-0 }}
* {{cite book|last1=Danziger|first1=Danny|last2=Gillingham|first2=John|title=1215: The Year of Magna Carta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=av1pjnpVRNAC&q=Cromwell+Magna+Carta&pg=PA271 |date=2004 |publisher=Hodder Paperbacks|isbn=978-0-340-82475-7}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Breay |editor1-first=Claire|editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=Julian |title=Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy |publisher=The British Library |location=London |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-7123-5764-7 }}

==External links==
{{Library resources box|by=no|onlinebooks=no|about=yes|wikititle=liberty}}
* {{Commons category-inline|Liberty}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}

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