Pluralism, freedom, liberalism, negative liberty, positive liberty, Karl Marx, Isaiah Berlin, political science, philosophy, democracy, individual freedoms
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Abstract
This document explores the concept of pluralism in relation to freedom, discussing various interpretations and philosophies, including liberalism and the ideas of Karl Marx and Isaiah Berlin.
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[...] In fact, since we cannot eliminate others we must accept constraints, for example the laws promulgated by the state. Nevertheless, these interferences must be legitimate in order to be tolerated, they must offer more choices than they suppress. Thus it is the intention of the interference that will make it legitimate or not. On the other hand, this interference can be arbitrary or not. According to Pettit, a non-arbitrary interference applies when one is 'under the control of the one who is its object »3. [...]
[...] Thus, it would be a civic freedom, experienced and built in our relationships with others. Therefore, pluralism is a polysemous term that refers both to the proper concept of liberty among liberals but also to the multitude of concepts of liberty that we have then observed. Although each one finds themselves in a particular idea of this notion, this pluralism of different concepts seems important and necessary to me because it perfectly illustrates the freedom of opinions, a value of our democracies and current societies. [...]
[...] So Karl Marx will focus on the relationship between the capitalist and the worker and pose several conditions in order to achieve a certain equality between the two parties: that the one who possesses the labor power be considered as 'free owner' in order that the owner of capital and the processor of labor power be legally equal persons. that the owner of the labor power 'be forced to put his labor power up for sale »2 so that the capitalist can hire him. However, as we have seen previously, freedom and pluralism can also refer to the different concepts of freedom that we are exploring now. In addition to negative liberty I. Berlin, in the same work cited earlier, he also presents the idea of positive liberty (represented by Rousseau, Kant or even Hegel notably). [...]
[...] Here we are questioning the very meaning of freedom. Before looking at the relationships we have with others, we must look at ourselves. Positive freedom is not being a slave to anything or anyone, notably through « the mastery of oneself and one's personal passions»1 for the benefit of a rationality aiming at the development of society. In public life, it involves an active participation of citizens because it is in this way that one can detach oneself from personal interest in order to participate in collective life. [...]
[...] This system is similar to the concept of negative liberty explained by Isaiah Berlin in his book Two Concepts of Liberty1. In fact, in this idea, we are naturally and absolutely free, the only thing that hinders us is others. So, in this notion of negative liberty, we are free to the extent that one person intervenes in our lives to prevent us from doing what we want or force us to do what we do not want, which implies the respect of individual freedoms: value of liberals. [...]
