12 Pages Posted: 2 Oct 2014

Date Written: September 28, 2014

Abstract

Liberty is a potent ideal. Rousseau called it the “most precious of all [God’s] gifts.” But it is also an elusive ideal. What is liberty? Who has liberty? Do some have more liberty than others? It is useful to start from Gerard C. MacCallum, Jr.'s claim that all theories of liberty conform to a 'triadic relation': 'x is (is not) free from y to do (not do, become, not become) z'. This entry examines five conceptions of liberty through the lens of MacCallum's formula: negative, positive, republican, Marxist, and feminist.