![]() ![]() This paper seeks to reassess the Athenian conception of freedom as ‘independence’ by stressing the significance of free labour in the Athenian democratic tradition. ![]() In the hands of republicans, Berlin’s characterization of positive liberty becomes democratic liberty without any historical examination of the institutional arrangements or ideological developments of the Athenian democratic tradition. However, Berlin’s characterization of positive liberty as a form of self-mastery that necessitates the subjection of the empirical self to the higher or rational self is rooted in the elitist critique of Athenian democracy. In their assessment of the democratic tradition, republicans have remained trapped in the parameters that Berlin used to define positive liberty. However, in their attempts to present a more sophisticated history of negative forms of liberty, they have neglected to subject the other pole of Berlin’s dichotomy to a similar critique. Contemporary accounts of neo-Roman or republican liberty have subjected Berlin’s characterization of negative liberty to a thoroughgoing and compelling critique. ![]()
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