Summary Of What's Wrong With Negative Liberty By Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor’s essay, “What’s Wrong with Negative Liberty” delves into the theory of negative freedom, deciphering the weaknesses and shedding light onto the aspects that are essential to a greater understanding of this topic. There are multiple viewpoints and debates on whether the Hobbes-Bentham model of thinking is correct or if Taylor’s analysis on the limits to the theory rejects the concept as a whole. This paper will discuss Hobbes’s view of freedom according to the state of nature, explain the weaknesses of negative freedom, and cover the aspects ignored by Hobbes that were essential to an overall understanding of freedom.
Thomas Hobbes depicts freedom in the Leviathan as " a freeman is he that, in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to" (Hobbes & Brooke, 2017). The freedoms described in the State of Nature by Hobbes are that there is no morality, no property, and everyone has a right to do as they see fit to preserve themselves, which means that they essentially have

It is primarily concerned with breaking free of external restraints and interference from other people. Negative freedom also relies on an “opportunity concept”, which is the absence of obstacles to do what we want to do or the area in which we are free to act. In other words, one can possess negative freedom if they are not enslaved by their external forces and if they have equal access to societies resources. The concept is entirely about what you have the ability to do, whether or not people actually act on those options. Charles Taylor believes that Hobbes’s view is best described as a negative freedom because as the definition states, it is the absence of obstacles that could hinder an individual and Hobbes is all about a freeman having the ability to do whatever he wants without the hindrance of external forces or