"
With this statement Berlin aims to make the point that those who have freedom have achieved it by exploiting others, and, at the same time, by placing those individuals within certain categories of social and economic degrees of freedom, to which they themselves are not subject.
Despite his high rhetoric which goes on for over 30 pages, Berlin does conclude that he is of the opinion that no matter whether liberty is negative or positive, it is, nonetheless, important, should be available to all, and simply because values are compromised does not mean that they are not eternal or secure. The reader, thus assumes by the end of the commentary that Berlin is indeed of the opinion that liberty is of the utmost importance to a functioning society.
Critique
There are various critiques upon Berlin's work. The one to be examined here will be that of Roberto Toscano who comments upon Berlin's concepts directly and may be of better assistance than my rendering above. Toscano being by illustrating once again the two concepts in his own view, but prefaces them by stating that it is impossible to truly categorize Berlin's actual beliefs or actual discipline (i.e. The man and his ideas are somewhat of a confused anomaly):
Negative Liberty: "A right to act without unreasonable external constraint or interference according to one's own purposes."
Positive Liberty: "A capacity to pursue and perhaps achieve one's ends, which capacity might demand constraints on oneself or others, or the provisions of certain basic conditions for that pursuit."
In order to illustrate these definitions, Toscano also adds that, negative liberty means "freedom from" and positive liberty means "freedom to," and further adds that though unclear in Berlin's work, these simple statements are meant to clarify his definitions. Toscano's criticism thus begins after defining these various terms. The author thus analyzes Berlin quite neutrally, and accepts that the former may have been a victim of believe too much in the importance of...
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